Zynga chief Don Mattrick says company intends to learn from lessons of 2014

Zynga learned a few hard lessons in 2014, and that was part of the reason that its earnings disappointed analysts today.

Don Mattrick, the chief executive of the San Francisco-based social gaming giant, said in an analyst conference call that “there were a number of things we could have done better this year.”

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Zynga shut down 10 games during 2014 as it made the transition from social games on Facebook to mobile games. Mattrick wants to exit 2015 with 75 percent of fourth quarter bookings coming from mobile games.

Clive Downie, the chief operating officer, said on the call that Zynga Poker launched in the fall without enough geographic and device-platform testing. Zynga found that the new game didn’t run on a lot of devices, and a large number player preferred the old look and feel of the previous poker game. So it had to move quickly to bring back the classic version of Zynga Poker and market it alongside Zynga poker.

Zynga Poker still has about 25 percent market share in social poker games on mobile, but Downie said that the team wants to restore its previous momentum.

Words With Friends, meanwhile, was delayed for a while to deal with customer feedback and quality issues. After it launched, it saw a 35 percent increase in players from the previous quarter.

Zynga also had a tough time fielding a great NFL football game as well. The company cut a deal with the NFL to get rights to make mobile games based on an official license, but it had to rush a game out to make the beginning of the football season.

Mattrick said that, as a result, the game lacked some of the features that players expect in worldwide launches. Zynga has been updating the game with new features, and this has had a positive impact, Mattrick said.

Meanwhile, Zynga’s China studio launched Farm Village, but that title and others fell short of expectations, Mattrick said. So Zynga decided to close the studio. That affects 71 employees, but it will save $7 million per year.

Mattrick said the company aims to launched six to 10 new titles this year, with all of the titles hitting mobile first.  He said he is expected about the new FarmVille “match 3” game, the NaturalMotion Dawn of Titans action strategy title, and the Empires & Allies modern combat reboot being led by game veteran Mark Skaggs. FarmVille has been downloaded more than 700 million times to date since 2009.

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Mattrick said all of these games would emphasize Zynga’s emphasis on “connecting the world through play.” He said the company will focus on social features such as collaborative play, user content creation, and competition across its titles.

“We would like to go faster, but we are being methodical and thoughtful about our decisions,” Mattrick said. “We are spending more time in geo-lock and more time in testing.”

Downie said it should be worth the wait, as mobile gaming is $30 billion now and could hit $40 billion in revenues by 2017.

One game that is doing well is Hit It Rich Slots, which is No. 15 in top-grossing games. Zynga’s Looney Tunes Dash has been downloaded more than 30 million times, but Zynga wants to more effectively monetize its games.

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