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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.
Draw Something hits 30 million downloads, overtakes Zynga on Facebook
The iOS phenomenon Draw Something has continued to blow up on an unprecedented level, and it's now reached another crazy milestone: The app has garnered 30 million downloads already, despite only being available to the public for about five weeks. And that's not all: Facebook says the app has picked up 10.8 million daily active users, which tops Zynga's Words with Friends' more than 8 million, thus making it the most popular app on the big blue social network. Pretty astounding, considering that just a few days ago we reported that the app had reached 20 million downloads. It's hard to believe an iOS app has grown so huge so quickly, but sure enough, with the Internet and social networks and all of the various mechanics Apple has put together to share and grow these audiences, Draw Something is only the latest in a long line of incredible success stories. This kind of app is definitely a rarity, as most iOS developers will tell you, but it definitely shows the potential of just how big this software platform has become, and how quickly users will take to games like this. As OMGPOP's Dan Porter says, "We want to make games for people that don't put games on their phone. ... That's how you get to massive scale." Apple has essentially made a smartphone for people who didn't buy smartphones, and because it did, there are mobile audiences out there like the one Draw Something has clearly found.
Draw Something hits 20 million downloads in just five weeks
Being a blogger in the Apple ecosystem, I'm used to seeing numbers that are completely staggering -- the number of iPads sold during an introductory weekend, for example. But when an iPhone app is able to pull in a huge number of downloads in a very short timeframe, I really pay attention. That's the case with Draw Something ($0.99), a social game that has not only jumped to the top of the paid apps chart in 79 countries, but has also been downloaded a whopping 20 million times in the five weeks that it has been available. CEO of developer OMGPOP, Dan Porter, says that the app is generating six figures a day. The company has also made more money in the five weeks that Draw Something has been in the App Store than they made all of last year. Over one billion pictures have been drawn using the app, which is similar to the classic Pictionary game. The superlatives keep on coming -- on March 11, 2012, over 3,000 drawings a second were being generated by users. Not all of the downloaders are active users of the game; OMGPOP reports that "only" 12 million users are actively playing Draw Something. Part of the app's attraction and one of the reasons it is being downloaded so much is that it requires at least two people to play. Do you play Draw Something? If so, tell other TUAW readers what you like -- or dislike -- about this incredibly popular game.