Social games company Zynga has acquired OMGPOP, developer of mobile hit game Draw Something, for a rumoured $210m (£133m), only six weeks after the game was released on iOS and Android.
Draw Something – essentially a multiplayer mobile version of Pictionary – has been downloaded over 30m times. At its current peak, the game has seen 3,000 drawings per second.
“One of our inspirations for Draw Something, from the interface to the asynchronous play, has always been Words with Friends, which really blazed the trail for what we have tried to do at OMGPOP – connect people through play,” says Dan Porter, CEO, OMGPOP. “Our new partners at Zynga know how to innovate at scale, and they’re pushing the limits of social with their mobile games. With the added resources we now have, and the deep gaming experience we can draw from, we can’t wait to continue to surprise our users.”
The partnership with Zynga – best known for its games Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Words with Friends – will be, added Porter with groan-worthy inevitability, “drawsome”.