Zynga Shuts Down 'Draw Something' Creator OMGPOP After Spending $200M to Acquire It

[MacRumors]

Last year, social game-maker Zynga acquired OMGPOP for roughly $200 million. OMGPOP is the development house behind the once-incredibly popular Draw Something.

Today, Zynga is shutting OMGPOP down as part of another round of layoffs at the company. Zynga has laid off 18 percent of its staff -- 520 employees -- reports AllThingsD.

The move today will affect every part of the San Francisco social gaming company and cut $80 million in staff costs. Zynga currently has about 2,900 workers.

But the action will also include the closing of its offices in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, as well as the slashing of other major infrastructure costs, adding to a total expense reduction that is likely to be much larger.

Zynga has killed some 18 games in recent months and has been spending more resources on a transition to mobile games.

Article Link: Zynga Shuts Down 'Draw Something' Creator OMGPOP After Spending $200M to Acquire It

 

[CGagnon]

I think everybody except for Zynga saw this coming way before they even acquired OMGPOP

 

[Timeraner]

Sounds about right.

 

[jbennardo]

Finding out you were laid off via Facebook - ouch.

 

[hexonxonx]

Yes, people began seeing the light and realizing paying to plant virtual strawberries was a waste of money. They began losing players well over a year ago and now Zynga is in bad shape. Buying Draw Something was a huge mistake. Bet they won't be doing something like that ever again.

 

[thelink]

Did they really think Draw Something would be popular forever? Sheesh...

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

This makes sense.

It makes sense that all these casual games crash eventually - Draw Something, Hanging/Words/Chess with Friends, Guitar Hero, etc... - what doesn't make sense is the ones that don't crash, like Angry Birds. Or is that also on its way down?

I guess it's the same thing always... People get bored of games eventually. Except Boggle, CatchPhrase, and StarCraft which somehow never get old...

 

[GoCubsGo]

The word is SAD. Now Draw Something!



Filed under: who cares.

 

[milo]

2900 employees after layoffs? Hard to even imagine what that many people were working on considering the product they put out. It seemed like a big advantage of working on social/mobile gaming is that it required less manpower to create the content compared with giant console titles.

 

[TouchMint.com]

Zynga is enemy number 1 so this is good to hear!!

OMGPOP had some great devs and I actually see this as good news. First off hopefully they got some of that 200mil. Second off now that they are out from under that horrible company they can get back to making some creative games instead of just copying everything and buying customers.

 

[Tinmania]

Did they really think Draw Something would be popular forever? Sheesh...

I think it was popular for about 3 weeks. I cringe just thinking about it now. Strange gameplay and took way too much time for a quick game (well, unless you happen to be a quick sketch artist I suppose).



Michael

 

[cassiar]

Zynga always made me uncomfortable. I don't really know why. They just seem sleazy. Maybe it's because of all the IAP's. Or the fact that they I feel like the lucked out with some early hits and yet never really understood out to make great games.

I am kind of glad to see them go.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

They expand too fast based on a too optimistic forecast. The bubble inflated so much that OMGPOPed!

it's always better to expand rationally. Many other companies have popped due to too accelerated growth, take INACOM as an example.

 

[Tinmania]

Some day, and that day may never come, buying a company that begins with "OMG" will be considered a crazy thing to do.



Michael

 

[odedia]

Too bad the guys at Zynga didn't learn how to draw a bubble.

 

[trainwrecka]

Did they really think Draw Something would be popular forever? Sheesh...

The potential was there for sure. The mechanics, UI, IAP, and other things prevented it from having lasting value.

 

[toaster64]

Anything labeled "Zynga" is terrible.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Now they're betting everything on being able to convince the US government to legalize online gambling nationwide and thinking they'll then take that market.

Keep in mind that they also cut 5% of their employees in October of last year and killed 10 games.

Both CFO Dave Wehner and chief game designer Brian Reynolds have left the company in the past few months.

They're headed down the toilet and I think most saw it coming.

 

[hkenneth]

Only if iPad has native support for pressure sensitivity, I would not use it for drawing.

 

[JayCee842]

The potential was there for sure. The mechanics, UI, IAP, and other things prevented it from having lasting value.

No, it wasn't going to last forever, nor would it be able to. All these games except Angry Birds are fads.

 

[GoldenJoe]

I would love to know how they are using 2,900 people to make apps and Facebook games.

 

[krravi]

After using smartphones for the last 5 years or so, I figured that the only Apps that get used regularly are

1) Browser
2) Email
3) Weather
4) News
5) Radio(Tunein,iHeartRadio etc)
6) Stocks
6) Facebook and Twitter (I don't use neither, btw)

The rest of them are all passing fad's. I haven't touched any of the other apps in ages...

I am sure others have other apps they use on a regular basis.

But, to buy a company based on their app for millions of dollars is a risk..

 

[pubwvj]

Are they playing Whack-A-Mole with acquisitions and games?

 

[mikeheenan]

No, it wasn't going to last forever, nor would it be able to. All these games except Angry Birds are fads.

Well, Angry Birds didn't start out as a fad, but they sure ran it into the ground with multiple games with slightly different settings, and the excessive merchandising and now the forthcoming movie.

 

[ej3ffrey]

So they drop "draw something"... And create "draw something 2" lol