Spiele sind nicht günstig. Durchschnittlich legen Konsolenbesitzer zwischen 60 und 70 Euro für aktuelle Titel auf den Tisch, während PC-Spieler zwischen 40 und 50 Euro berappen müssen. Entgegen diesem Trend und steigenden Verkaufspreisen verkündet das auf Social Games spezialisierte "Trend-Unternehmen" Zynga, dass Spiele generell kostenlos sein sollten.

Nur eine von vielen Ideen, mit denen Gründer Mark Pincus vor dem geplanten Börsengang vermutlich den Kauf von Aktien schmackhaft machen will.

Was die Farmville-Macher sonst noch so an Vorstellungen und Visionen für die Spieleindustrie haben, kann man bei Industrygamers nachlesen. Hier aber ein kleiner Auszug dessen, was Picus als die Philosophie und die Stützpfeiler des Erfolges seines Unternehmens beschreibt:

• Games should be accessible to everyone, anywhere, any time. From the beginning, we have strived to lower the barriers to play in people’s lives. We want to build games to play with our parents, our children, our co-workers and our best friends.
• Games should be social. Every week our teams test new features to make our games more social. Historically, our players have created over 4 billion neighbor connections. And, currently, our 60 million daily active users interact with each other 416 million times a day.
• Games should be free. Free games are more social because they’re more accessible to everyone. We’ve also found them to be more profitable. We have created a new kind of customer relationship with new economics—free first, high satisfaction, pay optional. This model aligns shareholder value with delivering the best player experience.
• Games should be data driven. Our culture combines the creative with the analytical. We develop and operate our games as live services with daily, metrics-based player feedback. This allows us to continually iterate, innovate and invest in the content our players love.
• Games should do good. We want to help the world while doing our day jobs. Through Zynga.org our players have purchased social goods, raising more than $10 million for those in need from tornado-stricken communities in Alabama to earthquake survivors in Haiti. With programs like our Sweet Seeds for Haiti, our players have touched people around the world.