Words With Friends 2, the second incarnation of the blockbuster mobile game that is definitely not Scrabble, is now out for iOS and Android. This version’s got more game modes and an updated UI.
Tough times at the once-mighty Farmville studio Zynga. The company announced $100 million in cuts. CEO Mark Pincus: ”We are reducing our workforce by 364 people or approximately 18%, decreasing our outside services and reducing our central function.” Yikes.
In early 2013, 53 million people were actively playing Zynga games. Twelve months later, that number has dropped to 28 million.
In case you've forgotten about them, Zynga still exists. And they still have enough money to acquire other smaller game development companies. The Farmville company just announced that, for $527 million dollars, they've bought NaturalMotion—the creators of the Backbreaker, Clumsy Ninja and CSR Racing series—and that…
"When I saw the rise of Zynga and tried out some of their games on Facebook, I noticed some of the same design patterns that we use in slot machines." Kotaku reader SpiffyPirate works with slot machines and talks about the similarities he sees between design ideas in that industry and in Zynga's games.
There were tons of personnel changes at Zynga, announced today by ex-Xbox boss and new Zynga boss Don Mattrick. The CTO, COO and Chief People Officer are out. Read through the changes and your head may spin. Big changes continue at the house of FarmVille.
