Those who regularly follow game streaming probably know there’s something of a exclusive war going on in that scene right now. Microsoft has been getting aggressive with funding exclusive deals for streamers with their budding Mixer service in an effort to take market share from Twitch. But there is a another player in the game with Facebook, and they are seeing a steady rise themselves.

As reported by GamesIndustry, Facebook Gaming’s streaming saw a pretty significant spike in viewed hours from year-to-year, 102 million total hours in December 2019 compared to 32 million in December 2018 (a huge 210% year-over-year rise). They held a total of 8.5% of the streaming market last month. For comparison, YouTube had 27.9%, Mixer had 2.6% and Twitch still held the lion’s share with 61%.

While Twitch is still, by far, the forerunner when it comes to game-related streaming, there’s more than enough competition from bigger players as you can see. You have several choices for where you chose to watch people play and commentate on games with a lot of alternatives on the rise.

But when it comes to games, it seems the man is still obsessed with Farmville. During a Garage Geeks event in Tel Aviv, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, a prominent Israeli venture capitalist Yossi Vardi asked Pincus what his favourite game was, to which the latter stated, “Right now, I’m pretty bored with all games.” Despite other games being named, including a few games from Zynga, Pincus’s answer remained the same.

Pincus remarked that he was waiting for a game to capture him like Farmville did. “I want that addiction again,” he stated simply.

The question now is: Does any one want that addiction again? It remains to be seen, as Zynga’s run continues.

So it only makes sense that VP of casino gaming Jesse Janosov would leave. However, John Osvald and Nathan Etter were both vice presidents for the gaming division and were instrumental in the growth of perhaps Zynga’s most popular title, FarmVille. Given how this occurred shortly after Mattrick’s appointment, it seems that the company is still very much in the red.

As of now, Etter is working at Disney Interactive division according to a report from Bloomberg. We’ll have more news on the outcomes of Osvald and Janosov as they arrive. What misfortune could possibly befall Zynga next?

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Facebook gaming is apparently growing beyond its Farmville and Mafia Wars roots, with the upcoming Soldiers Inc., a real time strategy game, looking a whole lot deeper than most Facebook fare.

The talent behind the game seems to be noteworthy: developed by Plarium, the studio behind Facebook games Total Domination and Stormfall: Age of War, the game has BAFTA award winner and veteran industry composer Jesper Kyd working on the soundtrack. His impressive resume before this includes the Assassin’s Creed, Hitman and Borderlands series.

The game is ‘inspired by the real world,’ and is set in the near future, and involves soldiers fighting in a post apocalyptic world in a failed state. It involves intricate gameplay mechanics, including combat, movement, and finding hidden treasure, Polygon reports.

Unlike Total Domination, this game so far has not been confirmed for iOS devices. No release date has been confirmed yet. We will have more for you on this game as it develops, so stay tuned.

One of those involved Zynga’s overall business plan and whether they had a sound strategy for development.

The employee responded, “Oh hell no. Their business strategy is terrible. Their major issues are the inability to adjust to the changing market. They did great when Facebook gaming was on the rise, but now it’s declining and Mobile is on the rise.

“They’re trying to change over, but employ too many of the same game development ‘best practices’ that were developed for Facebook games. These just don’t translate to the mobile market, which is why they’re suffering in that market.”

Of course, that’s not all. The internal issues with the company are enough to make your head spin. These include, “A lot of micro-management from the top down that stifles the creativity and hinders the production of many games. An over reliance on every game being a blockbuster hit which makes the fun aspect of games suffer while making the money grabbing tactics all too transparent to the users.”

The employee also outlined how Zynga suffers from a “serious lack of foresight” with “too many major decisions” being “quick reactions to sudden changes in the market. If some games jumps to the top of the Top Grossing charts then everyone need to drop everything and change to follow it. Which wastes time, makes for bad design and ultimately puts projects behind schedule.

“It just means they’re always late to the party, and whatever game they’re trying to compete with has already faded away by the time their own version hits the market.

“They rely too much on reacting to what is making money now, and too much on their own data. They don’t strive to make anything new or innovative and that’s no way to excel in the games market. You need to lead the pack, not try emulate the best practices of top games with the hopes that you can out perform and already established IP.”

One of the questions asked was how long would Zynga continue to function at the current rate it’s going. The employee replied, “Hard to say. At this rate, I’d give them another 2 to 3 years. They make money and have a lot in the bank. But they also throw away money like you wouldn’t believe.

“If they actually manage to change their strategy and start putting out some big hits, they could be around a lot longer.”

The session itself holds a good number of juicy details. Just what percent of users spend real money on Zynga games? The employee responded that it “depends on the game, but on average I think it’s about 5%. Maybe less.”