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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.
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.
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]
