Zynga gambled a lot by launching a complete new Application with the launch of the Pioneer Trail expansion to FrontierVille, but apparently it was a gamble they’ve won: after a pretty rough start, The Pioneer Trail has reached 13 million active monthly players, which is about the same number of players FrontierVille had. Check out the charts, according to Inside Social Games, below:
There are two interesting things coming from this, though:
1. There are many new players who have started playing The Pioneer Trail, while veteran players and most inactive ones haven’t made the switch. This means that Zynga managed to get a small boost of new active players by launching The Pioneer Trail as a new application and replacing the old FrontierVille.
2. However, the war is not won yet. There are many people who try a new application only to stop playing sooner or later and most likely those who didn’t like FrontierVille because of the gameplay will stop playing The Pioneer Trail, since it’s almost the same thing.
So could this mean that after this big increase, The Pioneer Trail active player base will actually drop? I am sure Zynga hopes not, but only time will tell. Until then, it’s worth keeping an eye on the stats!
I don’t agree, the game-play of PT is completely different to FTV!! Let’s face it, FTV is a homestead where you can buy stuff, plant stuff, harvest stuff. On the trail, there’s not much you can do, right? ALSO, I am one of few who remain, only because I am as stubborn as anything . . . BUT I have seen many of my friends & neighbours leave, not just because Zynga, who, in their stupidity, decided to NOT finish developing a game they had already opened to the public (c’mon, how dumb is THAT?), but also because of the many unnecessary changes of FB. FB are just as stupid as Zynga ~ don’t they understand consumer relations? If you allow the customer to believe they actually had a say in your latest product, they’re more likely to accept whatever changes you enforce. No doubt there are many newbies willing & ready to jump into the graves of the folk who have been here since Zuckerman was a baby, so I actually don’t place much value on your numbers. Loyalty just isn’t rewarded nowadays, is it.
I think that the numbers have gone up because they have finally given us some new things in FrontierVille. (Which by the way Zynga, is the game we play!, and yes of course they monitor this popular page just to make sure everything being said is with in the boundaries of what they deem acceptable.) Anyway, a lot of people who started playing for the trail who have already stopped. The trail is silly, stupid and boring. I have been stuck for what seems like months at the entrance to fort courage, which I assume will be like a homestead due to the items Bart’s bargins has on the fort tab. I really only go to the trail to so that I can help the one neighbor that stills plays the trail. I wish she would fire me, but she can get no one else to help her with the trail.
Any word on when PT will get the same new-neighbor-without-being-FB-friends treatment that is an option in Farmville?
What zynga don’t tell you is that those “active” players are also included in the ghost neighbors. There is a very good reason as to why they say they can’t remove your dead neighbors or they say that a fix is in place. ” That fix” has been in place for the last 12 months or so they say and it still hasn’t been done or implemented. The dead neighbors and the ones who no longer play are in that active player list.