MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Mobile is increasingly putting gamers off of social titles as it becomes ever-more popular, the president of EA Labels has claimed.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Frank Gibeau said the mobile scene was the fastest growing sector in the industry right now, and as a result had pulled many users away from social games.
He added that this is why he believed Zynga had struggled of late as it had too much of a reliance on the social games sector.
“My sense is that mobile is putting a lot of gamers off social and mobile is booming right now, whether its tablets, smartphones, Android or iOS," said Gibeau.
“We’re a big player there, we’re number one in terms of market share. We’re pivoting hard to mobile because it’s the fastest growing segment of the interactive games business right now, and its certainly pulling most of the activity off social, and that’s where you see a flattening of social right now, and frankly where the problems are that Zynga is encountering.”
Gibeau also said that after a number of layoffs at PopCap Seattle and Vancouver last week, the casual games developers would be shifting further toward mobile and away from social.
