Earlier this week Zynga sent out some curious invitations to a conference call to various members of the media, including TouchArcade. That left us scratching our heads to see what exactly it was that Zynga was up to that could possibly interest us. I was half expecting them to reveal plans to bring more games to iOS following the success of Farmville [Free] on the App Store, but this took me completely by surprise.
Zynga has acquired NewToy, the developers behind both Words with Friends [$2.99 / Free] and Chess with Friends [$2.99 / Free]. Where things really get interesting is when you consider that NewToy collaborated with ngmoco to release We Rule [Free] back in March, which has since been reskinned several times in various themes. Ngmoco has since been bought by Japanese social gaming conglomerate DeNA, which currently is one of Zynga’s biggest competitors in the social gaming realm.
While many of our readers are (understandably) getting tired of freemium time sinks, it is incredibly interesting watching the international business battle unfold between all of these companies making untold millions on microtransactions and ad impressions. We’re not sure yet what this will mean for NewToy other than a shiny new titles for the higher-ups at NewToy as well as the rebranding of NewToy to “Zynga With Friends." Like all these previous high-dollar dealings, it will be fun to see what happens once the dust of the acquisition settles.
