Zynga has announced it’s launching its popular Words with Friends game on Messenger’s Instant Games as part of the company’s plan to capitalize on the platform. Zynga is famously known as one of the pioneers when it came to Facebook’s original game service, though since the demise of Facebook itself as a gaming platform, the company has struggled to keep revenue up by releasing a number of mobile titles, though it’s now hoping to bounce back from its recent troubles through Words with Friends for Messenger.
The basis of the game is no different to the independent mobile version that’s been available for download for a while now, though the Messenger version utilizes bots instead of pop-up notifications to remind players when it’s their turn to act. Aside from this, the overall convenience of having the game available inside Messenger without the need to download a separate app is sure to be the main attraction for many users, something that might allow Zynga to attract a new crowd of customers. Considering the platform is only launching today, titles released on it likely aren’t going to become overnight successes, though it does at least give Zynga access to over 1.2 billion potential customers. Taking the sheer amount of potential users into account, though, an established game like Words with Friends might help both Zynga and Facebook test customers and gather the necessary feedback in order to prepare for future launches on the platform.
With Zynga on the lookout for what could be its next big series, it appears platforms such as Messenger that utilize bots could easily be the basis of the majority of its future releases. While the use of bots is expected to increase gradually over time, user dependence on individual apps is set to decrease. Due to this, by grabbing a chunk of the Messenger’s new platform before it has even taken off, the company is taking serious measures in order to guarantee itself a future in mobile gaming. It remains to be seen if Messenger will give Zynga the next big success that it has been seeking for the past few years, but taking into account the convenience of the Messenger ecosystem and the sheer amount of its users, Zynga’s certainly has a chance to succeed.
