Hidden Chronicles, Scramble With Friends yet to explode, what gives?

Not one, but two Zynga games don't have tens of millions of players within the month of their launch yet? Is that the sky we see falling outside? Not quite, but according to a recent Cowen and Company report, you'd think it was. The analysts' report spells doom for the recently public social game giant if can't create "multiple-million DAU [daily active users] titles per quarter just to keep its overall Facebook DAUs from continued decline."

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the report points at Hidden Chronicles and Scramble With Friends, the two games released by Zynga this month for Facebook and iOS devices, respectively. Neither game has seen the impressive numbers witnessed by the likes of CastleVille or Empires & Allies last year. In fact, the former broke records for Zynga. What Cowen and Company fails to point out, however, is that the company has yet to begin its normal aggressive cross promotion campaign for Hidden Chronicles.

While it was revealed earlier this month that Zynga could soon begin its cross promotion campaign for the hidden-object game in FarmVille, nothing has started yet within the company's games. As of this writing, Hidden Chronicles has just 810,000 daily active players, according to AppData. This is reminiscent of the predicament Adventure World faced in its early life without Zynga's powerful cross promotions, and speaks to how the company appears to rely on these tactics.

However, the developer's Scramble With Friends seems to be doing quite well, sitting at number two behind Temple Run on the App Store's Top Grossing chart. (This is likely thanks to advertisements found in Words With Friends.) Regardless, Cowen and Company points out a reality that Zynga's cross promotion strategy might not be able to handle: "We believe that Zynga's rich valuation can only be justified if Zynga is able to at least stabilize, if not grow, its overall social gaming audience," report authors Doug Creutz and Jason Mueller said.

[Via Joystiq]

Do you think Hidden Chronicles could ever grow in the same way that CastleVille did? What about Scramble With Friends when compared to Words With Friends? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.