Zynga is known as one of the leading mobile publishers. The company is now planning to expand its brands on PC and consoles with the first title expected to release this year.
NaturalMotion, known for its game CSR Racing, will develop the first cross-platform project for Zynga. The company shared the news during the recent earnings call with investors.
“We are actively developing cross-platform play games, which will further expand our total addressable market,” Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau said, according to Seeking Alpha.
The publisher explained that while it will develop its business as a mobile-first company, it sees a lot of potential in cross-play and cross-platform franchises. “That’s where you see a lot of billion-dollar franchises,” Gibeau commented, saying that such games are driven by live services and free-to-play models.
Zynga has chosen NaturalMotion for its initiative because the studio is already experienced in Unity and Unreal, while a lot of their development team worked on PC and console games before. However, it doesn’t mean that the publisher will release standalone games outside of mobile platforms.
In 2020, Zynga had record-breaking financial results. According to the company’s annual report, it earned $1.97 billion (up 49% from the previous year). The publisher will continue to release mobile games with their first Star Wars project expected to enter soft launch in summer.