Zynga—purveyors of Facebook-dominating games like Farmville, FrontierVille, FishVille, and PetVille— announced on Thursday that it had acquired Texas-based mobile gaming company Newtoy. Newtoy, of course, is behind iOS smash hit Words With Friends, along with titles Chess With Friends and We Rule.
Word game fanatics needn’t fear that Zynga’s acquisition of Newtoy spells any sort of doom for the most popular multiplayer iOS word game; Newtoy itself will now become Zynga With Friends and continue to produce its existing titles, in addition to developing new ones for Zynga.
Newtoy CEO and co-founder Paul Bettner is now the vice president and general manager of the Zynga With Friends Studio, and his brother and co-founder David stays on as studio director. In a press release, Paul said that “The Zynga With Friends Studio will build on the Newtoy legacy of creating approachable, highly social games that are accessible to anyone from anywhere.”
The Zynga With Friends network—neé, of course, the Games With Friends network—is the most popular gaming platform on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, according to Zynga, with more than 5 million active monthly users. Zynga’s -ville and other social games claim more than 215 million active monthly users, and the company already employs more than 1300 people out to clog your Facebook news feed with game status updates.