Zynga’s Newtoy Acquisition Means More Facebook-Style Sims for Smartphones
Zynga’s acquisition of mobile game developer Newtoy, announced earlier today, is the strongest sign yet of its intention to become a mobile powerhouse. Facebook, despite the launch of new properties like CityVille, is conquered territory; the empire’s attention lies outward.
Traffic numbers always get the most attention when Zynga talks about what it’s doing – in this case, it can claim 12 million downloads for Newtoy’s top game, Words With Friends. But the Words franchise isn’t the most interesting part of the story.
Words With Friends, you see, is a paid app, excluding an ad-supported version, while Zynga is a company whose DNA is built around free apps with in-game microtransactions. The backstory to the Newtoy acquisition is that the company is also the developer behind We Rule, one of the first mobile hits to draw heavily on the Facebook sim game model.
Two months ago in October, Zynga acquired Bonfire Studios, which worked on We Farm, a We Rule sequel. With the two acquired developers in hand, Zynga now has a substantial experience base to recreate its Facebook successes on mobile devices.
It’s probably not a coincidence that We Rule and We Farm were also both published by Ngmoco, which along with its new owner DeNA is being positioned by a number of onlookers as Zynga’s top competitor in mobile.
Zynga has already made a number of key hires for its mobile development efforts, and CityVille, as we pointed out this morning, looks like it was built for mobile release. Our guess is that Zynga is preparing for a turning point in the mobile market, with the intention of recreating the release blitz and resulting explosion in user numbers it enjoyed on Facebook in 2009.
Newtoy will be renamed Zynga With Friends, and will continue to operate out of McKinney, Texas, next door to Bonfire’s Dallas office. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Imagine what the Zynga executives will be saying when they prepare for a meeting with their new acquired company – ‘Let’s go play with our New Toy.’
(heheh)
December 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 am
I want people to tell me how this was set up exactly with multi player server etc?
And how to paid game is differrent from the free one?
I have to get my word game going and no its not a Scrabble clone.
December 3rd, 2010 at 10:53 am
Multiplayer Server Tech – Smartfox (http://www.smartfoxserver.com) I use it every day and its a great product.
December 4th, 2010 at 11:35 am
I do no think it is ran on Smartfox because I read on their customer support they jept taking their server down for maintenance.
December 17th, 2010 at 3:07 am
What companies do they use for the free game for ads?
DO they use install like Adparlour?
December 20th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Ello companies? cant be bothered to help anyone
December 30th, 2010 at 8:55 am
[...] In fact, even the major hires this week are, technically, not hires. as the former CEO of the acquired NewToy Inc. changes roles to vice president and general manager at Zynga, and Playdom vice president of mobile [...]
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:13 am
[...] the biggest companies are restructuring or hiring away top mobile talent to make this transition. Zynga acquired mobile game developer Newtoy and poached Yahoo’s senior vice president David Ko to oversee its mobile strategy. Crowdstar [...]
February 4th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
[...] Zynga Brings Words With Friends to Android — Earlier this week, Zynga announced that the popular iOS title Words With Friends is coming to Android. Words With Friends is the popular word game developed by the Zynga-acquired Newtoy. [...]
February 4th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
[...] Zynga Brings Words With Friends to Android — Earlier this week, Zynga announced that the popular iOS title Words With Friends is coming to Android. Words With Friends is the popular word game developed by the Zynga-acquired Newtoy. [...]
February 10th, 2011 at 8:49 am
[...] Calkins — Part of the NewToy acquisition, Calkins officially moves his communications director tag from under NewToy to under [...]
April 27th, 2011 at 9:36 am
[...] of games originally developed by studios Newtoy and Area/Code, both of which Zynga acquired between December 2010 and January [...]
May 9th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
[...] Ko to run its mobile division, but it’s also made a series of mobile acquisitions in the last year including Words With Friends maker Newtoy and the U.K.’s Wonderland [...]
June 6th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
[...] when Zynga acquired mobile developer Newtoy and its Scrabble-esque iOS game, Words With Friends. At that time, we thought Zyna might focus its mobile efforts more on paid apps as opposed to free-to-play apps, [...]
June 15th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
[...] Zynga’s acquisition of Newtoy, the company bought Words With Friends, an app that is a reliable top 15 performer on the grossing list. The studio, which became part of [...]
August 1st, 2011 at 11:09 am
[...] and run by Newtoy, an independent mobile developer, in July of 2009. Zynga acquired the developer in December 2010. Hanging With Friends was the studio’s first game developed and published completely under [...]
December 19th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
[...] acquired Words With Friends developer Newtoy last November in order form a new studio called “Zynga With Friends.” Regulatory filings made ahead [...]