Video: Zynga's Mark Pincus Squirms In The Hot Seat
If you have paid to play Farmville on Facebook then chances are some of your dollars have floated into the apparently overflowing wallet of Mark Pincus. The 45 year old entrepreneur claims to have collected around 180 million dollars in revenue from his Facebook App games that include Cafe World and Mafia Wars. Over the past few months it has come to light that some of this revenue may be coming from a less than honest ad approach to in game sales. Pincus appeared on the NBC tech news program Press:Here to discuss his success and defend the nature of his Harvard MBA mind. Here he stumbles, noticeably when asked about comments made in regards to his business practices in an earlier You Tube video (also included in this segment), implying that the ends justify the means. On Nov.17th, 2009, a class action lawsuit was filed against Zynga and Facebook in California as a response to the sneaky ads and when this subject is broached, Pincus remains even-tempered stating:
"This suit does not have merit and should be made toward third party advertisers."
While the ads have been largely removed it does nothing to help the thousands already relived of their dollars. Pincus continues to etch his portrait of innocence stating:
"It breaks my heart to hear that people feel like they were scammed in any way."
While Pincus is clearly well versed in the ways of business perhaps he should have taken a few PR lessons to help hide his hefty ego. In the meantime I think I'll break out my copy of TouchMaster 3 for my DS when I want some quick satisfying fun sans the phrase "additional fees apply."
ROCsteady
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 19 December 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: cafe world, facebook, farmville, harvard, mafia wars, mark pincus, nbc, press:here, touchmaster 3, you tube, zynga
Marc Pincus?
I did not know this was his name, but from now on it will be Mark PINGAS!!
*sigh*
Okay, if you're paying REAL money to plant make believe virtual watermelons or to buy a +12 damage Gat, you probably have a Farmville or Mafia Wars addiction and should start using your time AND money more productively. You still have a chance to lead a normal life so stop while you still can (and while your bank account still has 3 digits not counting the ones after the decimal).
If you're getting duped out of $20+ a month to be a "premium member" for any of these sub par games you can take your ugly ducklings or little lost black sheep and keep taking the eternal hike of financial instability because you are officially a prime target for any kind of advertising that exists today. Essentially, you are the Eskimo buying ice from the "nice" salesman!!