To 
say the last two weeks have been unkind to Zynga is a bit of an understatement. The company’s stock has plunged roughly 45 percent. It reported an earnings shortfall. Guidance was reduced. And it found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from one of the videogame industry’s biggest publishers.
The hits just keep on coming for a company that not long ago was the poster child for the next big thing in gaming. More bad news for Zynga could be on the way.
Every 
Thursday, I join Chris Salcedo and Lori Lundin on the mid-day edition of America’s Radio News Network to discuss trends and news in the technology and video game space. This week’s topics were Amazon’s increasing encroachment on Netflix territory, blocking Olympic spoilers and EA’s decision to take Star Wars: The Old Republic to a free-to-play model.
Last 
week was an ugly one for Zynga, but the company is likely to face some even rockier times, argues Chris Morris, with the coming expiration of a new round of employee stock options being the most looming hurdle.
Last week was an ugly one for Zynga. An earnings shortfall and reduced guidance for the coming fiscal year resulted in a 40 percent drop in the company’s stock, which brought out the doomsayers.
Those corporate obituaries are premature, but the company is likely to face some even rockier times before there’s much chance of things getting better.
Hollywood 
loves a good high speed car chase — and EA’s Need For Speed franchise is chock full of ’em. It was only a matter of time before the two came together.
DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film rights to the racing franchise and is fast tracking it for a 2014 release, which will coincide with the series’ 20th anniversary. Filming is set to begin next year.
Sales 
in the videogame industry have been declining for more than three years, due in no small part to competition from mobile devices. Yet it’s still a field that’s creating high-net-worth individuals at a rapid clip.
On average, rank-and-file videogame professionals pocket more than $81,000 per year, according to a study by Game Developer Magazine. That alone is nearly double what the typical American takes home. But a few game-box heroes (who undoubtedly weren’t part of that study) blow the curve. Click ahead for some of the industry’s most affluent individuals.
For 
the past several years, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise has been the videogame industry powerhouse — dominating the sales charts not only during the critical holiday sales period, but also carrying that momentum well into the following year.
In 2012, though, the franchise is showing signs of weakness.
One 
of the ugliest lawsuits in the video game industry’s history has been settled just days before going to court, but the legal fireworks may not be over yet.
Activision and Electronic Arts have settled their differences over Jason West and Vince Zampella, former heads of Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty franchise and “agreed to put this matter behind them,” the two publishers said in a joint statement.
The Force 
is, well, a little tepid with Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Electronic Arts’ much ballyhooed massively-multiplayer game set in George Lucas’s celebrated universe is bleeding customers, losing some 400,000 in the fourth quarter — a number much worse than anyone was expecting.
With EA 
share prices at their lowest since July 1999, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris examines if one of game industry’s biggest players is a potential acquisition target.
Electronic Arts has been the rumor mill’s favorite grist for years — but in recent weeks, the company has found itself the subject of even more whispers than usual.
Reports that Nexon was planning a bid for the company proved to be a significant misunderstanding by a major news outlet, but with the company’s revelation Monday that subscribers to Star Wars: The Old Republic are leaving at an alarming pace and that the future earnings outlook is tepid, those takeover talks may be resurrected.
Now 
in its ninth year, King.com has rapidly become a social gaming powerhouse after pushing its games to Facebook. Amidst rumors of acquisitions and an IPO, Gamasutra speaks with the Bubble Witch house.
While it’s going to be a long while before anyone gets within striking distance of Zynga’s dominance when it comes to social games on Facebook, the fight for the number two position on that site is a fierce one, when it comes to daily active users.
Three companies are battling for the silver medal — Wooga, Electronic Arts and King.com. EA’s held the lead for a while, but earlier this month King.com broke away from the pack, largely on the strength of its Bubble Witch Saga game.
Chris Morris: Journalist 