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Chronicles

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OMG, Zynga Welcomes a New Member to the Family

Put down your smartphones and iPads for just a sec. I've got some big news.  Today I'm excited to tell you about a new addition to the Zynga family, OMGPOP.  This New York-based developer of social mobile games has recently received a lot …

Zynga Blog Dan Porter

Context & Ripple Effects

Two days after TechCrunch first reported deal talks between Zynga and OMGPOP, the New York studio behind the runaway mobile hit Draw Something is officially joining Zynga. The pickup lands just weeks into Zynga's confirmed push to reduce its dependence on Facebook, including the launch of its own Zynga.com destination site earlier this month.

The story traveled widely on day one — pickups at Business Insider, GigaOM, Bits and WebProNews among others — with the argument already splitting along two lines: TechCrunch sources put the price near $210 million, while Business Insider argued OMGPOP "sold way too early" and left $800 million on the table. GigaOM framed the real question as what Zynga actually wants from Draw Something itself, a game that went viral without Facebook distribution.

First-order effects

  • Zynga gains OMGPOP and its chart-topping Draw Something, an iOS-first success achieved entirely outside the Facebook ecosystem that anchors Zynga's existing business.
  • OMGPOP's New York team becomes Zynga's newest internal studio, giving the company a proven mobile development group rather than a licensed property.

Second-order effects

  • Rival social and mobile game publishers now face a Zynga that buys breakout mobile hits outright instead of building clones — a sharp contrast with January's Dream Heights episode, when Zynga was widely criticized for copying NimbleBit's Tiny Tower.
  • A public debate over whether OMGPOP undersold sets a reference price for every hot mobile studio negotiating with larger acquirers, raising the bar for founders weighing an early exit.

Third-order effects

  • If Zynga keeps funding acquisitions from its position atop Facebook gaming while buying mobile-native studios, it is structurally hedging against both platforms at once — consolidation of social gaming around whichever company owns the hits rather than the channels.
  • The deal reinforces a hit-driven economics pattern in mobile games where a single viral title can command nine-figure exits within weeks, encouraging investors to fund rapid-launch studios as acquisition targets.

The trend: Social gaming is consolidating around hit-acquisition M&A, with Zynga using Draw Something to buy its way onto smartphones as it weans itself off Facebook distribution.

Related: OMGPOP · Zynga · Zynga Is In Talks To Buy "Draw Something" Maker OMGPOP

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