Z for Zynga-liar: Zelnick calls Pincus out over "sketchy metrics"

News by Patrick Garratt Founder & Publisher (Former)

Published on Nov. 30, 2011

Take-Two chief Srauss Zelnick has accused social gaming giant Zynga of having "sketchy" metrics, claiming an inability to provide concrete data is keeping the firm from full disclosure.

"I would argue being the number one player in [social gaming] is complicated, which is why Zynga hasn't gone public yet because their metrics are sketchy," said Zelnick at the Reuters Global Media Summit yesterday, as reported by GI.

"Zynga is a direct marketing company, 97% of which don't pay them anything, 3% who do," he said of Zynga game players.

"They churn quite quickly and they get new customers. That is their model."

Zelnick added: "I think they have disclosure issues. I think you are seeing their acquisition costs go up, marketing costs go up and they have very high churn."

This is the second time this week Zynga's taken a kicking in the press. The New York Times reported on Monday that the firm is home to a vicious work culture, and that PopCap turned down nearly $1 billion in cash from Zynga over reputation issues related to “rescinding share awards and fierce internal competition”.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus is currently building towards an IPO.