Zynga.com is the "Steam of social" games, says VP of partner publishing
Zynga.com, is in Zynga VP of partner publishing's opinion, "the Steam of social" games.
Speaking with GI International, the former Sony SVP of publisher relations and former Eidos and Crystal Dynamics president has said Zynga hopes to build its new Zynga.com platform into an all-in-one service. This will allow those who play Zynga games to "play from anywhere" while also helping out third-party developers launch, promote, and grow their games.
"Zynga.com brings people a new way to connect with friends and meet new people who love to play, and it gives our players an easy way to discover new games they might enjoy," said Rob Dyer. "We're thrilled to be working with our partners to bring the first set of third-party games to our network of players on Zynga.com and Facebook, and are excited to help our players discover new games by shining a light on some of the most talented game developers in the industry."
Dyer said helping players discover new games will be a daunting task, and Zynga.com will have to change in the process as more game are added. If you've ever played a game through the portal, you'll notice quite a few hiccups can occur when playing Hidden Chronicles, FarmVille 2, or any other game on the service. It's to be expected when a million or more are using the service at the same time.
The more games which are added, the worse it will get if the infrastructure isn't solid, plus, if not laid out properly, it will make discovering games all the more difficult for Zynga's millions of players. Thus, Dyer hopes to grow the service slowly, and properly.
"I think the importance is discovery, just the same way you have discovery on Steam," Dyer said. "That's something we have to make sure we provide. Today, there are a lot of cool features in Zynga.com that will provide that, and you're going to see that being built out. We know that is imperative for our success; if we don't have great discovery, great ability to do player ratings, doing things that are really going to allow you to see what friends are playing. Those are things that we're going to make sure are available. Where are your trophies, are you winning?
"It's going to get harder, much harder. I look at ourselves as the Steam of social. Steam's done a great job, but I was also there at the beginning when Steam first introduced this thing, and there's nothing easy about that."