Zynga on Wednesday launched a new version of FarmVille as the one-time social games darling tries to win back players to one of the Facebook games that fueled its rise to stardom.
“We recognize that there are players who have moved on from FarmVille,” Zynga vice president of games Tim LeTourneau said.
“We wanted to embrace what three years of technology has brought and reinvent FarmVille as if we were making it fresh today,” he said.
FarmVille 2 is the first Zynga game built entirely with immersive 3D graphics and debuted in 16 languages — including French, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese — in an unprecedented nod to the original’s international appeal.
“FarmVille is a flagship product for Zynga and a global phenomenon that has been transformative for social gaming,” LeTourneau said.
Players tend to vivid virtual farms; planting seeds, watering and harvesting crops and even selling fruits, vegetables, crafts or baked goods at roadside stands.
“FarmVille 2 is an escape to a nostalgic place; a throwback to simpler times,” LeTourneau said while demonstrating the game. “We want to tell a story of you bringing this old family farm back to life and make you feel like you are part of this small village playing with your friends.”
Players can raise chickens, goats or other livestock as well as crops. The game was designed to be “irresistibly touchable” with plants, animals and more going into action when the cursor passes over them.
“The goal is to create and run a thriving farm with your friends,” LeTourneau said. “The bounty of the farm is ultimately what allows you to expand, and friends are the most powerful thing in the game.”
The original FarmVille was released for play at Facebook in 2009 and boasted 83 million monthly users at the height of its popularity.
Now, FarmVille has 18.9 million monthly players, according to industry tracker AppData.
Zynga has been under pressure to come up with fresh games to keep the attention of players.
The company’s chief creative and chief operating officers left last month after Zynga reported a losing fiscal quarter.
Spirits have sunk at the San Francisco-based firm along with the stock price. Shares were US$2.92 at the close of trading on Wednesday on the NASDAQ exchange. Zynga went public last year in December at US$10 per share.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS