If 
you thought the idea of an Angry Birds movie was ridiculous, how about a cartoon based on Farmville?
Zynga’s long-in-the-tooth Facebook hit is being transformed into a half-hour animated series, and it has managed to snag bigwig Hollywood director Brett Ratner to lead the effort.
In 
this op-ed, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris tries to figure out why investors are so down on what could be a good thing for Zynga.
So Zynga and Facebook have agreed to see other people — and Wall Street is freaking out about that.
Zynga shares were down 8 percent in early trading Friday after the companies restructured their working agreement. And while those investors certainly have a right to be mad at Zynga in general, I think they might be getting it wrong this time.
There 
are plenty of Zynga investors who want to cry after watching the stock has plunge so precipitously over the past year. One of those is CEO Marc Pincus.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple director Bill Campbell, who was brought in to advise the social giant’s founder earlier this year as things imploded, says Pincus was “discouraged” and near tears over the state of the company.
Game 
developers may not be lining up at Zynga’s doors after a cost restructuring that resulted in approximately 150 layoffs earlier this week, but in business terms, are things finally on the upswing?
I’m about to say something that’s likely to make me unpopular around these parts: Zynga may actually know what it’s doing.
I know… I know… But after months of seemingly drifting aimlessly and taking no steps to correct its ongoing free-fall in the markets, the company has made a few intelligent moves this week that have finally turned heads – and it’s done that as its biggest partner has tried to bury it.
When 
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said “consumers won’t pay for crap,” he hit the nail on the head as to why some social game companies are going through a crisis, argues Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris.John Riccitiello may not be the most popular executive in the video game industry, but when he speaks an undeniable truth, you have to give him credit.
Riccitiello made news last week when, at a conference, he noted “consumers won’t pay for crap” when it comes to social games. And while one could argue that, ok, people do sometimes pay for crappy things in general, he absolutely hit the nail on the head as to one of the chief reasons social game companies (including his own) are going through a crisis these days.
Mark 
Pincus has never been someone who follows the same path as the rest of the video game industry, but his latest divergence is a particularly interesting one.
A little over a week ago, Zynga CEO Pincus retweeted an analysis piece suggesting the company should abandon its efforts as a publicly traded entity and consider going private. The suggestion comes less than a year after Zynga’s highly publicized IPO.
Zynga’s 
streak of bad luck just keeps growing.
The social gaming company pre-announced some ugly third-quarter earnings late Thursday and significantly reduced its financial guidance for the year. Now, Wall Street analysts are beginning to wonder aloud if the company will ever be able to turn things around.
With 
news of another pair of executives bolting from Zynga Monday, it seems time to start focusing on who’s filling those increasingly empty seats, rather than who’s left in them.
While chief technical officer Allan Leinwand and chief marketing and revenue officer Jeff Karp explore other pastures, the pressure is about tostart mounting on Maytal Ginzburg, who came on board at the end of last month to fill the chief operating officer position left vacant by John Schappert’s unceremonious departure from the company.
As 
Zynga’s stock continues to hover around its all-time low, the number of high-level executives bailing from the social games maker is reaching critical mass.
Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu is the latest to jump ship, announcing Tuesday that he was leaving the company to start a new firm.
As 
Zynga’s share prices circle the drain, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris examines how CEO Mark Pincus’ “insistence on absolute control” has left the company’s investors in a tough position.
It’s a pretty safe assumption that anyone who shelled out for Zynga stock when the company went public — or even in the five months that followed — isn’t real happy these days.
After reaching a high of nearly $16 per share, the stock now dwells in the cellar, closing Thursday at $3.25. (And, if it weren’t for JMP Securities’ bullish words when it initiated coverage on the company Wednesday, it would almost certainly be even lower.)
Chris Morris: Journalist 