Mark Pincus, CEO of game developers Zynga, is the subject of a seriously unflattering portrait in San Francisco’s SF Weekly, in which ex-employees quote him as saying “I don’t want fucking innovation… Just copy what [Zynga’s competitors] do and do it until you get their numbers.”
In less controversial news, Zynga have opted to exclusively use the Facebook Credits payment system for virtual-goods purchases in games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. Virtual-goods are used by players to advance through games more quickly, and the sale of such items is expected to generate $1.6B in the US this year. For the moment, however, Zynga’s popular poker product will not be one of the games utilizing Facebook Credits, but given Pincus’ reported love of copying, we’re sure it will follow the other games’ lead soon enough. Read more.
