Technology

Zynga Searches for Another Hit Game Where It Found One Before

Mobile game maker Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) posted a new 52-week low Thursday morning of $2.36. That’s not an all-time low, though. The stock dropped to around $2.10 in October 2012.

Zynga has announced that it launched its new Words With Friends game for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) mobile devices and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android devices. The company said that the original Words With Friends game, which was launched in 2009, was the most popular free game of all time at Apple’s App Store. Zynga said that there are 55 million games being played around the world at any given time.

The company refreshed its mobile FarmVille game in April, but the company has a hard time turning popular games into significant revenues. Quarterly revenues have fallen steadily for the past four quarters from $202.6 million to $150.2 million and net losses have grown from $68,000 to $62.53 million.

Competition has heated up. Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ: GLUU) and its Kim Kardashian game led the pack for a while this year, but Glu has also fallen as the fickle gaming world searches for new thrills. King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE: KING) has been getting crushed recently as well. The company’s Candy Crush was enormously popular last year — the operative words there are “was” and “last year.”

New Words With Friends is not likely to regain the heights that the original reached. And even if it does, there is little direct impact on Zynga’s performance.

Zynga’s shares were trading at $2.38 in the noon hour on Thursday, in a new 52-week range of $2.36 to $5.89.

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