Hasta La Gadget!

Zynga is getting ready to send several more of its games to the graveyard. Joining the recently deceased CityVille 2, The Friend Game, and Party Place are Zynga’s previously popular games: The Ville, Empires & Allies, Dream Zoo, and Zynga City on Tencent. Zynga’s Chief Operations Officer, David Ko, stated that Zynga decided to take an axe to these “under-performing” games in an effort to lower costs.

Alongside the cancellation of those games, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus stated that Zynga has also decided to cancel the development of two of its major unreleased games. He stated that those games would not have done well for Zynga in the long run, and would only produce short-term boosts for the company. However, on the bright side, Zynga has released Draw Something 2 today in hopes of bringing casual gamers back to its platform, and it also recently released a new card battle game, War of the Fallen, which it hopes will attract more serious gamers to its service.

War of the Fallen will help Zynga in its transition into world of mobile games. Pincus stated that 2013 is the transition year for Zynga to get more into mobile games. Time and time again, analysts have stated that consumers are purchasing more iOS and Android games than they do standard video games, and Zynga wants to take advantage of that. Alongside Draw Something 2 and War of the Fallen, it plans on releasing many more mobile games this year. Currently, Zynga has over 65 million monthly active users playing its mobile games.

Zynga isn’t the only gaming company shutting down its social games in an effort to save money. Earlier this month, EA Games also decided that it needed to shut down several games of its own in order to cut costs. The company stated that it will be cancelling The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and Pet Society on June 14th. These shutdowns aren’t signaling the end of social games, but are suggesting that these companies need to branch off to different platforms in order to find new opportunities of revenue. Will you be missing any of these cancelled games?

[via VentureBeat]

Zynga gets ready to shut down more games is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a move that will hopefully attract U.S. startups to the Land of the Rising Sun, Softbank Capital and Yahoo Japan have created a $20 million fund geared towards helping U.S startups, with a focus in mobile applications, e-commerce, and web advertising, get started in the Japanese market. The fund is designed to help out early-stage startups who still need to get their foot onto the ground. Alongside the new fund, Yahoo Japan has also assigned a new head of U.S operations, Toshiaki Chiku, who will be working out of Softbank’s New York City location.

The new $20 million fund wil be added to Softbank Capital’s current $100 million Technology Fund’10, which is also aim towards startups looking to breaking into the Japanese market. Softbank Capital also has a $250 million PrinceVille Fund, that is set aside for startups who are in the later stages of their development. The fund is for startups that are geared towards mobile applications, social media, e-commerce, online advertising, gaming and cloud computing, and more.

In a statement released by Chiku, he says that Japan can be a difficult market to enter for many U.S. companies, but thanks to the collaborative efforts of Yahoo Japan and Softbank Capital, U.S. companies will have the support it needs to “grow and succeed”. In an interview, Joe Medved, a partner at Softbank capital, stated that this is Yahoo Japan’s “first investment in the U.S. market in its history.”

Softbank had made several investments in early stage startups before, including Bluefin Labs, Buddy Media, Buffington Post, Hyperpublic, and OMGPOP. Bluefin Labs was sold to Twitter, Buddy Media was sold to Salesforce.com, Huffington Post was sold to AOL, Hyperpublic was sold to Groupon, and OMGPOP was sold to Zynga. Softbank Capital was also an early investor in Yahoo, and it currently owns a 40% stake in Yahoo Japan. With the new funding, Softbank capital hopes to see a huge increase in growth opportunities in Japan, which would in turn help develop international business for its early-stage investments.

[via All Things D]

Softbank Capital and Yahoo Japan aim at bringing U.S. startups to Japan is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Huawei, who was once excited to be bringing more of its smartphones into the United States later this year, has decided to stop focusing its priorities on the U.S market, and instead will focus its efforts on bringing its products to the rest of the world. The company stated that its change in focus is due to “geopolitical reasons”. For quite a while now, Huawei has been under fire from the United States, Canada, and even the EU due to allegations that the Chinese government is using its smartphones to spy on other nations.

Last October, both Huawei and ZTE were under fire from U.S. lawmakers, who claimed that the Chinese government was using these telecommunications companies as a way to spy on the United States. The lawmakers encouraged businesses in the U.S. to avoid purchasing products from these companies, which damaged both companies’ revenue streams. Huawei and ZTE both defended their positions, saying that all the allegations were false.

Several sources later stated that the White House found no evidence that Huawei’s equipment was being used as espionage tools by the Chinese government. But even so, lawmakers and government officials still believe that Huawei’s products are a threat. Canada, which planned on bringing Huawei’s smartphones into its government communications network, decided to ban the company’s products from being used. A provision was issued to prevent the U.S. government from purchasing Huawei and ZTE’s devices, and the EU has intentions of launching an investigation in both companies.

Huawei states that in the future, it may shift its focus back to the U.S. market, but for now, it’ll focus on other, emerging markets. Li Sanqi, Huawei’s Chief Technology Officer, stated that the company would love to get into the U.S market, which currently accounts for 30% of the entire world’s mobile carrier business, but for now, the company will “focus on the rest of the world, which is reasonably big enough and is growing significantly.”

[via PC World]

Huawei no longer focused on the U.S. market is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

On April 5, we reported that Fisker automotive had laid off 75-percent of its workforce, with a lawsuit following a few days later over the last-minute nature of the mass layoffs. The auto maker had run into a string of problems, and appeared to be making some last-ditch efforts to avoid bankruptcy. In light of this, the Department of Energy has taken $21 million from a reserve account, expecting the manufacturer to default on its loan.

The announcement was made Monday evening, with a statement released by the Department of Energy saying that in the light of the “obvious difficulties” Fisker is facing, the department has elected to pull the funds “on behalf of the taxpayer.” The money in the reserve account is from investors and sales, and will be applied to the amount of the loan. The action happened 12 days ago.

Like others before it, Fisker received an Advanced Vehicle Technology Loan as part of a federal program from green initiatives. The loan was for $529 million, but the auto maker only received $193 million of that before the Energy Department put a stop on the loan due to the manufacturer’s failure to meet specific requirements. The company was supposed to make its first loan payment this month.

Fisker hasn’t commented on the situation. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has taken on the services of bankrupcty attorneys, but is seeking a way to stay in operation. Currently there is a lawsuit against the company by former employees who are seeking 60 days of wages and benefits, which they say they are owned because Fisker was required by law to supply a 60-day written notice ahead of the mass layoff.

[via Wall Street Journal]

Energy Department expects Fisker to default, pulls funds from reserve account is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Netflix posted up its Q1 2013 earnings today, and things are looking fairly good for the streaming service. They surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the quarter, and added three million new subscribers, two million of which are US users, bringing the total number of global subscribers to 36 million.

During the quarter, US streaming brought in $639 million in revenue, with international streaming raking in $142 million. The company’s DVD business, while slowly falling off, is still seeing action, with $243 million in revenue. However, that’s down from $254 million during the previous quarter, as well as $320 million during the same time last year.

As for profit, Netflix experienced losses in both operating and net income categories, with a loss of $32 million and $3 million, respectively. The company noted in a letter to shareholders that the loss was due to an “extinguishment of debt” that was connected to a bond refinancing back in February. Without that, the company would’ve netted $19 million.

Netflix brought up the company’s own original series House of Cards, saying that the show gave the streaming company “confidence” in picking up shows that their users would enjoy. However, not as many people took advantage of Netflix’s free trial offer as they were expecting. It turns out only 8,000 people used the free trial offer to watch House of Cards.

The letter to shareholders also mentions a new monthly plan that Netflix is planning to launch soon. To accommodate larger families with multiple devices in the house, Netflix is going to launch a new $11.99-per-month plan that will allow users to stream content on four devices at once, which is up from two on the regular streaming plan. No date has been set, but Netflix says that less than 1% of its user base will take advantage of the new plan.

Netflix adds 3 million new subscribers in Q1 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.