Zynga (ZNGA) published a press release on June 11 detailing a publishing partnership with Snap (SNAP 2.24%) that will bring new games to the social media company's Snapchat social-media platform. The press release announced Bumped Out, the first game stemming from the expanded partnership, and it also confirmed that more exclusive titles from the video game developer will be heading to Snap Games.
Bumped Out sees players piloting virtual bumper cars and trying to push competitors out of digital arenas, and the game was made available for download immediately following its official unveiling. Gaming is a key growth avenue for Snap, and the company announced at its recent Snap Partners Summit that more than 100 million users had played titles on its service since the platform's launch in April 2019.
Image source: Zynga.
What does the partnership mean for Zynga and Snap?
Zynga led the social-gaming space at the start of the last decade thanks to strong engagement for titles hosted on Facebook, but the company's performance suffered as social gaming shifted away from browser-based distribution in favor of app downloads on mobile devices. Zynga has since pivoted its business to focus on app-based distribution, but the expanded partnership with Snap signals that the gaming company is seeing renewed opportunities from working with social networks that can host its titles.
Zynga released Tiny Royale (a variation on the battle-royale genre popularized by titles including Fortnite and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds) on Snapchat in 2019. Investors didn't get much detailed insight on how Tiny Royale performed, but the expanded partnership suggests that Snap was pleased with what the game developer delivered. Securing more exclusive games will bolster original content offerings on Snapchat, and the expanded partnership should also create additional growth avenues for Zynga.
