Zynga Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

NimbleBit calls out Zynga clone of Tiny Tower

by Mike Schramm (Jan 25th, 2012)

Zynga, which has made its fortune on Farmville, has released an app in Canada (not on the American App Store yet) called Dream Heights, which bears much more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower, a terrific and very successful freemium game from NimbleBit (the brothers-run company that we've ...

Zynga picks up four more mobile gaming companies

by Mike Schramm (Jan 19th, 2012)

Mobile/social game giant Zynga has made four more acquisitions in mobile gaming, having already picked up quite a few iOS and mobile development companies in the past. This time around, the biggest pickup is a company from Germany named Gamedoctors, makers of the very popular ZombieSmash title. ...

Rovio reportedly turns down $2.25 billion from Zynga

by Mike Schramm (Nov 28th, 2011)

We're pretty late in the year, but this might be one of the craziest stories of 2011 -- according to sources, Angry Birds developer Rovio turned down a deal with social game company Zynga, to the tune of $2.25 billion. That's right, billion with a B, and they turned it down. I actually believe ...

Zynga announces HTML 5 games, will run on Facebook for iPad

by Mike Schramm (Oct 11th, 2011)

Social game giant Zynga is holding a press conference in San Francisco right now, and the company has announced that it will be releasing a series of new games for Facebook, all built in HTML 5 rather than Flash. That's especially interesting for us iPad users, because it means that those games ...

Words with Friends now a Facebook game

by Chris Rawson (Aug 13th, 2011)

When Facebook gaming giant Zynga bought Newtoy and rebranded it as Zynga with Friends, it was only a matter of time until games from the "with Friends" franchise started popping up on Facebook. Sure enough, Words with Friends is now playable on Facebook as of a couple weeks ago. The game's ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Zynga Poker

by Mike Schramm (Jul 18th, 2011)

Zynga has gained a reputation as the evil empire lately, and to a certain extent that's true -- a lot of the company's Facebook "games" aren't much more than pyramid scams. But Texas Hold'Em poker is a game that will always have players, and for all of Zynga's drama, their Poker app has been ...

Zynga picks up another iPhone developer, Five Mobile now Zynga Toronto

by Mike Schramm (Jul 8th, 2011)

The Zynga blog reports that the huge social gaming company has picked up yet another iPhone developer to add to its growing staple. Five Mobile, a company that's made various apps for iPhone and other mobile platforms, is now part of Zynga and will be renamed Zynga Toronto, tasked with working ...

Zynga hires team behind cocos2d

by Mike Schramm (May 9th, 2011)

Zynga has picked up yet another relatively big-name iOS developer. After acquiring Wonderland, Area/Code and Newtoy earlier this year, the social gaming giant has now acquired the team behind the iOS physics engine cocos2d. That engine is used by all kinds of developers, and while Zynga has ...

Zynga buys Wonderland Software, makers of GodFinger

by Mike Schramm (Apr 28th, 2011)

Zynga has added another iOS developer to its growing stable -- Wonderland Software, makers of GodFinger, the Ngmoco-published freemium title, has been purchased and rebranded as Zynga Mobile UK. Wonderland made GodFinger for Ngmoco, so that game isn't part of the buyout, but Zynga will, of ...

Zynga, Ngmoco donating to Japan through iOS games

by Chris Ward (Mar 15th, 2011)

Giant gaming company Zynga has joined the Japanese relief effort by enabling in-game donations in FrontierVille, FarmVille, CityVille and other games. A full 100 percent of the virtual goods' purchase prices will be donated to Tsunami relief, and Zynga is partnering with the Save the Children to ...

Report: Zynga worth $7-9 billion

by Mike Schramm (Feb 14th, 2011)

The Wall Street Journal says that, with its $250 million in new funding, social gaming company Zynga could be worth as much as $7 to 9 billion -- that's "billion" with a B. An astounding number for the company behind the extraordinarily popular Facebook game Farmville. Zynga has a number of ...

Zynga acquires Drop7 developer Area/Code

by Mike Schramm (Jan 21st, 2011)

Area/Code's Drop7 was one of the first big games on the App Store, and it was even recently featured in the iOS indie bundle sale over the holidays. But the developer probably can't wear the indie label too proudly any more -- the studio has been acquired by social gaming giant Zynga, and will be ...

Zynga buys Newtoy, studio rebranded as Zynga With Friends

by Mike Schramm (Dec 2nd, 2010)

Well how about this -- Facebook and social game giant Zynga has bought up iPhone developer Newtoy, makers of the popular Games with Friends apps, including Words with Friends and Chess with Friends. Newtoy has now been rebranded as Zynga With Friends, and will apparently be working on new titles ...

Ngmoco releases We Farm in the US, celebrates three million We Rulers with free mojo

by Mike Schramm (Aug 5th, 2010)

Ngmoco's free to play strategy is spooling right along -- not only is its We Farm title now available on the US App Store (it arrived late last week after a short beta in Canada), but the company is also celebrating three million We Rule players by awarding everybody 20 free mojo. New players can ...

Ngmoco's We Farm now available in Canada

by Mike Schramm (Jul 20th, 2010)

Ngmoco has released the followup to its popular We Rule game on the Canadian App Store. We Farm is, as you can see above, very similar to We Rule, with the main difference being that the game is set on a farm rather than in a medieval fantasy world. You'll be able to raise animals, plant ...