Zynga New York split into Mobile, Social studios with OMGPOP acquisition — gearing up for mobile publishing
With today’s OMGPOP acquisition, Zynga New York is split firmly into two studios: Zynga New York Social and Zynga New York Mobile. OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter now heads up the latter as vice president and general manager.
The Zynga New York Mobile studio is made up of both OMGPOP and Astro Ape, which Zynga acquired late last year to work on Dream PetHouse. The OMGPOP team will continue to work on Draw Something for mobile and other future projects — one of which Business Insider confirms as crime-themed game The Street. Draw Something will also officially arrive on Facebook as a playable game sometime “soon,” though it’s clear the developer is waiting for fan feedback before making the complete cross-platform jump.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if it’s going to be Draw SomethingWithFriendsVille?” Porter demanded during a 10-minute follow-up call scheduled after today’s media briefing. “I’m going to answer you anyway — if you don’t like the direction of the game as a player, then hit me up on Twitter and tell me what you think. I read every single thing people write about the game. We want to make games people want to play.”
OMGPOP has a history of trying various game types on different platforms to see what gets traction. On Facebook, its games have ranged from restaurant sim Cupcake Corner to the more arcade-y Pool World Champ. On mobile, it’s been pet sim Puppy World, puzzle game Boom Friends and now, most recently, Draw Something. The developer even has a true cross-platform HTML5 game, Gem Rush. Though each of these titles may have achieved traction in their respective markets at one time or another, only Draw Something stands out as a real hit.
Read the rest on our sister site, Inside Mobile Apps.



March 25th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
[...] Zynga New York split into Mobile, Social studios with OMGPOP acquisition — gearing up for mobile p… [...]
March 26th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
[...] Rovio’s Angry Birds took the No. 2 spot with 1.9 million new MAU for an 11 percent gain, ending its three-week reign as the top game on the list. Meanwhile, Draw My Thing continues to move up the list, breaking into our top ten at No. 9 with 400,000 MAU bump for a 19 percent gain. This likely has something to do with the popularity of its mobile sibling Draw Something and OMGPOP’s recent acquisition by Zynga. The future of Draw My Thing remains uncertain, since it’s been confirmed that a Draw Something is coming to Facebook. [...]