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Zynga wins in copyright suit against Mattel over Scramble with Friends
Zynga has emerged victorious from a round of battle in the High Court after Mattel claimed Zynga's Scramble With Friends app infringed on the toy maker's trademark for Scrabble. Mattel argued that the app's name was too similar to their classic boardgame, Scrabble, which is known as one of the best ways to turn the action of forming of words into a passive-aggressive, violent affair. Although the judge ruled in favor of Zynga concerning the name dispute, he did side with Mattel concerning the app's logo, stating that it "gives the impression that the word is Scrabble when one looks at it quickly." Mattel spokesperson Alan Hilowitz said the company is "disappointed that the court did not rule that Zynga should cease using the Scramble name, which Mattel intends to appeal." The ruling follows the departure of several Zynga executives, including co-founder Justin Waldron. The company also recently shut down four of its games and the website for Draw Something creator OMGPOP.
Zynga shutting down four games, OMGPOP site
Zynga's slash and burn to a more manageable and potentially profitable size continues with the closure of four games and the OMGPOP.com site. OMGPOP created former phenomenon Draw Something, earning it the notice of Zynga, which swiftly purchased the company for approximately $200 million just over a year ago. OMGPOP games Cupcake Corner, Gem Rush, Pool World Champ and Snoops will come to a close on August 29; OMGPOP.com will officially cease to exist on September 30, 2013, three months after the studio's closure in June. OMGPOP was impacted by the same cuts that saw Zynga's headcount reduced by 18 percent. Zynga notes: "This decision will not affect Draw Something, Draw Something 2 or Draw My Thing - you will be able to continue playing after OMGPOP.com has closed." The social games giant is currently reinventing itself under the direction of new CEO Don Mattrick, former head of Microsoft's Xbox division.
Zynga to shutter OMGPOP website on September 30th
OMGPOP has had a rough life under Zynga's wing -- the startup fell from grace as it became clear that Draw Something was more a one-hit wonder than a sustainable profit engine. It makes sense, then, that Zynga is continuing its cost-cutting spree with plans to close OMGPOP's less successful web portal. The shutdown will start with four of OMGPOP's web games, which stop running on August 29th. OMGPOP.com will go dark a month later, on September 30th. Only mobile apps will remain after the closure, including Draw Something, Draw Something 2 and Draw My Thing. The move isn't surprising given Zynga's strengthened mobile focus, but we're still sad to see OMGPOP lose a large part of its remaining identity.
Former OMGPOP employees speak out following closure
Immediately following its closure by Zynga, the scene in the OMGPOP office was not what you might expect. As anonymous ex-employees told Business Insider, the Draw Something studio was determined to enjoy its final day. That meant booze, loud music, and defacing Zynga paraphernalia. "Most layoffs are sad," one former employee told Business Insider. "You imagine big corporate settings where security is there to lead people out of the office so they don't make a scene. This was the opposite. Music was being played loudly and people were ripping up Zynga hoodies and t-shirts. Anything that was Zynga was completely left there. The sentiment felt positive." That's not to say there wasn't bitterness beyond the ripped clothes. Former VP of Outreach Ali Nicolas took to Twitter to chastise Zynga for its "idiotic execution" and reminding her "how not to operate a business." Like Nicolas, some employees expressed their ire to Business Insider. One employee said OMGPOP was "totally under-utilized," while another felt no-one other than Zynga CEO Mark Pincus was "really happy" about the studio being part of the company. OMGPOP was one of three studios understood to be closed as Zynga laid off 18 percent of its staff this week. Zynga acquired OMGPOP for a reported $200 million in March 2012 following the New York-based studio's phenomenal success with social doodling app Draw Something. However, the acquisition wasn't able to survive Zynga's continuing struggles, despite OMGPOP releasing Draw Something 2 only two months ago.
Zynga closes OMGPOP, the creators of Draw Something
Zynga announced yesterday that it was laying off about 18 percent of its work staff, or about 520 employees, which is bad news for any company. But it turns out that this set of folks includes most of the crew of OMGPOP, the company Zynga acquired for its uber-popular app Draw Something last year. It was only last March that Zynga picked up OMGPOP for $200 million after Draw Something became a big hit, and while the app did both grow and spawn a sequel under Zynga's oversight, OMGPOP's CEO Dan Porter left the company just a few months ago, and now most of the original staff is out of a job. Or at least on to the next one -- one former Zynga staffer says to TechCrunch that most of the team members "had new jobs lined up by the time they left the building anyway." It's true that the OMGPOP acquisition was extremely public, and while Draw Something was always popular, it wasn't hard to see that the audience lost a lot of engagement after that initial acquisition. I don't think this is the death knell for Zynga just yet -- the company has been cutting titles, but still has successful games running, and it's working on more to come. But this is definitely a wakeup call that the once huge social and mobile juggernaut needs to do things a bit differently in the future.
Zynga layoffs impact OMGPOP, studio reportedly closed
Following Zynga's massive layoffs, it's emerged the company may have shuttered Draw Something studio OMGPOP. As SiliconBeat spotted, the studio noted via Twitter yesterday "was the last day at Zynga for many OMGPOP staff," and former VP of Outreach Ali Nicolas tweeted she'd been laid off and that the "OMGPOP office is closed." Meanwhile, former Senior Community Manager Joseph Alminawi said he and "most of the studio" were laid off, perhaps indicating some staffers were relocated. Zynga confirmed yesterday it's laying off 18 percent of its staff. The announcement came shortly after a report by AllThingsD noting closures at Zynga's Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York offices. OMGPOP, based in New York, looks to be one of the studios referred to. Today's news comes just over a year after Zynga acquired OMGPOP for a reported $200 million, and only a month or so after Draw Something 2 was released. Former OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter left Zynga back in April. As for Zynga itself, 2013 had already brought high-level departures, studio closures, and significant losses. We've reached out to Zynga for confirmation of studio closures.
Draw Something 2 available with new words, drawing tools
Zynga's Draw Something, the incredibly popular drawing game for iPhone, now has a follow-up: Draw Something 2. It's available now on the US App Store as an ad-supported free download or premium, ad-free version at US$1.99. It was just in February that Zynga VP and General Manager, Dan Porter, said there were some exciting things in the pipeline for Draw Something, and we now know what he was talking about. Draw Something 2 has many new additions and features, including 5,000 new words, more drawing tools and over a hundred colors, plus a social feed and "Galaxy," where users can store their favorite drawings. Draw Something was originally developed by OMGPOP. It became hugely successful within a very short time and was soon acquired by Zynga. It eventually leveled off in popularity, but we're sure Zynga is hoping to re-ignite its popularity with Draw Something 2. [Via The Verge]
Draw Something studio CEO leaves Zynga
It's been so long since we've mentioned a big-name Zynga departure, so here we go: Dan Porter, former CEO of Draw Something developer OMGPOP, which Zynga acquired a year ago for $200 million, has exited the company.USA Today reports Porter, who served as VP of Zynga's New York office, leaves as the studio continues work on Draw Something 2. The original Draw Something has enjoyed over 100 million downloads since launching last February.
Draw Something 2 is coming soon
No, that's not a threat; it's a fact. Just about a year after Zynga bought developer OMGPOP, CEO Dan Porter has confirmed on Twitter that a sequel to Draw Something is coming soon. Porter says the new version of the game will feature "new ways to draw and connect," and TV host Ryan Seacrest has been posting screenshots that reveal new paint swatches and a number of other additions and upgrades. Don't worry: There's also a price-tag button right on the top bar, so the app will undoubtedly feature lots of in-app purchase options. The original Draw Something (which was released on mobile platforms and Facebook) saw its daily users drop quickly after the Zynga acquisition, but OMGPOP recently announced the game has seen over 100 million downloads and 11 billion drawings in the year since release.
Draw Something crests 100 million downloads after one year
After launching last February, Draw Something has penciled in 100 million downloads, Zynga has announced. The publisher released an infographic to celebrate the news, revealing some interesting facts about the game. Over the last year, 11 billion drawings have been made, with players spending over 28,000 combined years with the game. Furthermore, 22 million pizzas have been drawn, beating out the 11 million drawings of Lady Gaga.This goes a long way toward confirming our long-held theory that pizza is precisely two times better than Lady Gaga.
Report: Zynga paid over $20M for A Bit Lucky; Draw Something executive leaves
Zynga reportedly paid between $20-$25 million for "mid-core" developer A Bit Lucky, a pair of sources familiar with the deal tell Bloomberg. Zynga announced the acquisition of the developer a couple days ago, part of an initiative by the publisher to create deeper gameplay experiences that are attractive to a wide range of players, but can also be enjoyed by core gamers.Also revealed in the past 24 hours: Wilson Kriegel, former chief revenue officer of Draw Something studio OMGPOP, has left the company. Zynga acquired the studio only a half year ago for $200 million.
Zynga posts loss, beats estimates following OMGPOP acquisition
There's good news and bad news for Zynga's financials. The good news first: Thanks to its purchase of Draw Something developer OMGPOP and some strong releases, the social game publisher beat quarterly revenue estimates from Wall Street, growing its year-over-year revenue to $321 million from $243 million. Zynga says it expects to make from $1.425 billion to $1.5 billion this year in total.But the bad news is that outside of that big purchase, the company isn't showing the growth that Wall Street would like. Total monthly active users were up 24 percent, but analysts would prefer to see even more, and claim that Zynga only had a good quarter because of the acquisition.Zynga also lost $85 million for the quarter. "They had to acquire to raise their numbers, but you're not going to be able to do that too many times," said Arvind Bhatia at Sterne Agee.So Zynga will need to prove that it can sustain its growth outside of major acquisitions if it wants to keep stock prices up. We don't know much about the financial world, but would planting more corn help?
Zynga-owned Draw Something finally gets update for sharing, undo
Most of our stories about Draw Something since the game's launch have been business related. After it garnered tens of millions of users in its first few weeks, the company that makes the game, OMGPOP, was bought by Zynga for a whopping $200 million. But here's finally something to show after all of that hubbub: The game has been updated on the App Store with a few features that probably should have been in there all along. Specifically, those would be the ability to actually share the pictures you make with Facebook and Twitter or saving them to the Photos app on your iOS device. Previously, people were working around this by screencapping their pictures, but this makes much more sense and should make for passing around even more great drawings. You can also undo steps if you make a mistake while drawing, and users can chat with each other as they draw as well. As far as I'm concerned, this is OMGPOP catching up with must-have improvements to the app and given that much of the buzz on the app has passed, they might not be too much help in growing the app's audience even further. But for those still playing Draw Something, these will probably be nice updates to have anyway.
Zynga expects to acquire more companies to rival OMGPop deal
When some people are rejected they use it as motivation to improve their own lives: start working out, eat healthier, study harder, create something beautiful. Other people take it personally and start manically hitting on anything in a 50-mile radius to prove that one person was so terribly wrong. Zynga, it turns out, takes rejection personally, and as companies are more people than people are, it's planning a years-long acquisition spree, CEO Mark Pincus tells Bloomberg.Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, rejected an offer from Zynga for $2 billion, Bloomberg writes, and from 2010 to 2011 Zynga spent $147 million to acquire 22 companies, and $180 million on Draw Something's OMGPop alone. Zynga's merger chief Barry Cottle is searching for companies with blockbuster social games on the same scale as Farmville and Cityville, Bloomberg says.Zynga plans to handle "a few" deals similar to or larger than the OMGPop acquisition in the next three to five years, Pincus says."We're sitting in a very advantageous position," Cottle says. "We have a significant amount of cash, we have no debt, and we have access to debt to be as aggressive as we need to be." Zynga has $1.81 billion in cash and short-term investments and its stock is unstable, dropping 3.2 percent this morning to $10.59, Bloomberg notes. Let's hope that with all those new employees Zynga is transplanting and taking on, a few of these acquisitions work out as expected.
Draw Something hits 50 million downloads, becomes number one paid app
Draw Something has become the fastest selling mobile title in history, moving 50 million proverbial units since its launch last February -- 13 million of which were accumulated in just the last week. The pictionary-plus-'splosions app from OMGPOP is currently the number one paid app on the iOS App Store, dethroning Rovio's flagship rocket ship Angry Birds Space.Broken down into impressive-yet-meaningless marketing figures, Draw Something has yielded six billion drawings in total, at a rate of 3,000 per second. We'd imagine that a large percentage of those drawings are boners, but new-owners Zynga have yet to release information that specific.
The one OMGPOP employee who turned down Zynga
When Zynga announced that it bought OMGPOP, the developer of the newly minted hit Draw Something, a lot of people shared some frustration. Zynga has earned a reputation as a less-than-popular developer out there, and the fear is that Draw Something, which currently has a relatively simple charm, will get overloaded with social cruft and other nonsense. But at least one person out there has a real problem with the Zynga takeover: Developer Shay Pierce actually walked away from his job because of it. His story is an interesting one, and he wrote it up over at Gamasutra earlier today. Basically, he was a developer for OMGPOP (though he says he didn't actually work on Draw Something), and when the news came down that Zynga was acquiring the company, he was concerned about his own iPhone app. Pierce published a puzzle game called Connectrode on his own time (with his employer's blessing), but he was worried that self publishing like that wouldn't fly under Zynga's banner. And indeed, long story short, it didn't. He was basically told to stop publishing on his own or leave the company, and instead of joining up with the house that Farmville built, he quit his job. It sounds like he'll be all right -- he was compensated for his leaving, is planning to work as an independent developer for a while, and the press from this has probably grabbed a nice bump in sales for his game, I'm sure. Still, Pierce doesn't mince words talking about Zynga. "When an entity exists in an ecosystem, and acts within that ecosystem in a way that is short-sighted, behaving in a way that is actively destructive to the healthy functioning of that ecosystem and the other entities in it (including, in the long term, themselves)," he writes, "yes, I believe that that is evil. And I believe that Zynga does exactly that." I would agree that many of things Zynga is doing (mostly revolving around its social and casual games) are unsustainable. Its audiences need to grow to continue to make the company successful, and Zynga has built a model so thin on gameplay that I believe there's a limit to just how interested in these games people can become. But I wouldn't argue that the company is evil -- being a flash in the pan just makes them a fad, not the devil. Still, you may disagree. I think the final part of this story is to see what happens to Draw Something over the next weeks and months. The app has garnered such a huge audience so quickly that it seems as though it'll be very difficult for even Zynga to hold that interest for long. As for Pierce, he's made his choice, and we'll look forward to what he's working on next.
Creative drawings from Draw Something
Buzzfeed member Sandanito posted up several creative drawings from the hit app Draw Something. You can see a sample drawing in the image above and head over to Buzzfeed to see the rest. And if you haven't tried Draw Something, it's available for free from the iOS App Store (99-cents will get you an ad-free version) and has over 30 million users.
Zynga acquires Draw Something dev OMGPOP for $200 million
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how App Store fortunes are made. We've posted already about the almost overnight success of Draw Something, an app that has picked up over 30 million downloads and even beaten Zynga at its own game on Facebook. And because everyone knows that Zynga has plenty of cash and just needs as many users as it can get, the check has apparently been written: The company is expected to announce the acquisition of Draw Something's developer, OMGPOP, at a press conference happening in just a bit later on today. All Things Digital says it has indeed been confirmed. OMGPOP has a few different titles out, as well as a New York-based team of about 40 people. But what Zynga is really after here is the audience -- its games are social, so the more people playing them the better, and with the overnight audience of Draw Something, Zynga can promote its other games quite a bit. As for OMGPOP, my guess is that the company hasn't had too much success on the App Store until now, and basically decided to get on the money train while it's still in the station. Zynga's known for swooping in fast on deals like this -- if things had gone the other way, and OMGPOP had decided to hold out and try to really monetize the app on their own, odds are we would have seen Zynga try to take advantage of Draw Something's popularity anyway. At any rate, congrats to the OMGPOP team. Plenty of Draw Something players are groaning on Twitter, and lots of them are hoping that Zynga doesn't ruin what's still a pretty good and clean experience. But you never know -- with Zynga's resources, maybe Draw Something will turn into something even better yet.
Zynga buys Draw Something dev OMGPOP [update: confirmed!]
Draw Something developer OMGPOP was purchased by social gaming monolith Zynga today, Zynga announced. No price is disclosed in the announcement release, but the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog is reporting that OMGPOP went for the lofty price of $200 million. Sources with "first-hand knowledge" of the deal detailed it as a combined purchase amount of approximately $200 million between an outright cash transaction of $180 million, and "$30 million or so in employee retention payments." Payday for the Draw Something folks!Beyond OMGPOP's massively successful, Pictionary-esque iOS and Android game, Draw Something, the New York City-based developer also brings a variety of Flash-based expertise to Zynga. The team will also add around 40 employees to Zynga's swelling numbers – the company repurposed NewToy into Zynga With Friends late in 2010, and did the same with NYC's Area Code in early 2011.Additionally, OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter has become vice prez and general manager of Zynga New York (formerly Area Code), and OMGPOP will be rolled into the "Zynga New York" studio.Update: During this afternoon's conference call regarding the purchase, OMGPOP said it would like to add picture saving and chat to Draw Something. No other potential updates were mentioned.
Daily iPhone App: Draw Something
We've already posted about Draw Something a few times for business reasons -- the title is just blowing up the App Store, and has already overtaken all of Zynga's titles as the most popular social game app on Apple's platform. But the game, available now, is definitely worth a try as well. I've been playing it all weekend long, and even though it's way more casual than the games I usually play, there is something very fascinating about this artistic back and forth. We've seen games do this on the App Store before -- Charadium and Depict are two good examples, and there are other options out there as well. But Draw Something's charm is in its simplicity -- there are really no points to speak of, and you don't even really win or lose. If the player trying to guess a drawing doesn't get it, they just pass, and then you move on to the next guess. You do have a combo sort of going back and forth, and you are trying to earn coins (which can be used to buy extra colors to draw with, and consumable hints, essentially), so there are some game elements there, but Draw Something is basically a picture messaging service, and the pleasure in it is seeing how your friends have approached putting a word to an image. Unfortunately, Draw Something's simplicity is also its main drawback (sorry). There's no way to save or archive the pictures you draw outside of just taking screenshots (press the iOS sleep and home buttons at the same time), and there have been some really good ones out there. Given how social the game is, it seems a little nuts that there's no "share this picture on Twitter or Facebook," but maybe that's for cross-platform compatibility (or will just be added in the future). Those looking for a little more than just fun with friends might be disappointed by the game's UI as well -- it's extremely simple. But all that said, there is an addictive glee to Draw Something, no question, that makes it definitely worth trying out. 30 million people can't be wrong, right? The game is available in a 99 cent version without ads, or a free version with ads included.
