Zynga Misses on Revenue, Lowers Full-Year Guidance

Zynga is trying to reinvent itself on mobile — but that reinvention will take some more time, the company said today in its Q2 earnings report.

The San Francisco-based gaming company reported bookings of $175 million in the quarter that ended in June, down 6.6 percent year over year and below analyst expectations of $191 million. It also lowered its full-year guidance by $85 million, and is now forecasting full-year bookings to come in between $695 and $725 million.

Zynga stock was trading down nine percent shortly after the closing bell.

For the first time, mobile revenue surpassed the revenue from Web games on Facebook and Zynga.com. Monthly active users on mobile were up 34 percent year over year, likely connected to the launch of Farmville 2: Country Escape on mobile.

The first mobile iteration in the Farmville series has consistently been a top-20 grossing app on the U.S. iPad app store since shortly after launch, according to App Annie. However, it has yet to overtake its main rival, Supercell’s Hay Day, which seems entrenched in the top 10.

Games that had been planned for release in the spring and summer — including retooled mobile-first versions of Zynga Poker and Words With Friends — will be delayed to late 2014 or into 2015. Meanwhile, Zynga also announced new partnerships with the NFL and Warner Bros. to make a football game with officially licensed player likenesses and an endless-runner game, in the style of Stampede Run, starring Looney Tunes characters.

Development of the NFL game is being headed in Zynga’s Orlando, Fla., studio by Mike Taramykin, an eight-year EA Sports veteran who worked on bringing the lucrative Madden franchise to Facebook. At EA, Taramykin also oversaw the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise, which dropped Woods as its mascot in late 2013; perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Zynga has also inked a multiyear exclusivity deal with Woods to make him the face of a new golf game, also in development in Orlando.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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