How much revenue can a free game earn?

[famousringo]

ChrisIsNotSexy said:

famousringo said:

ChichiriMuyo said:

Zynga's worth around a million a day.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/03/zynga-revenue/

Yeah, those virtual goods are surprisingly lucrative. My sister has paid $150 to such a game... twice.

A million a day isn't too surprising, I'm just trying to figure out what Zynga is supposed to do with the billions of investor capital that keeps getting thrown at them.

Make a gaming console?

I don't see why. The way Zynga makes money is by luring new users in with extremely low barriers to entry, then offering them an easy taste of gratification for a fee.

Nobody buys hardware to play Farmville, but they have a PC or a smartphone and the game is free, so why not play? The money only shows up later when the game has engaged the player emotionally.

Zynga piggybacks on hardware and networks that people have already hired to do other jobs. I don't think they could sell a ZyngaBox, or meet as much success with a ZyngaNetwork as they do with Facebook. The only use I can think of for all that investor capital is to make more attractive and compelling social games (not that expensive) or buy access to more platforms and networks.