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Zynga with Friends' Paul and David Bettner leave Zynga

David Hinkle — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:30:00 EST

Brothers Paul and David Bettner, best known for coming up with Words with Friends, have left Zynga. The duo are the latest high-profile departures from Zynga following vacancies left by CCO Mike Verdu and COO John Schappert.

"We are still very excited about the future and feel like we are at the beginning," Paul Bettner told Gamesbeat during a phone interview. Neither would comment on why they chose to leave Zynga nor would they comment on their time at the company.

The duo originally came on board with Zynga when the company purchased their Texas-based studio Newtoy, effectively rebranding it Zynga With Friends. Before the Zynga acquisition, the Bettners had previously helped ship Halo Wars at developer Ensemble Studios before its closure.

Zynga with Friends' Paul and David Bettner leave Zynga originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Words with Friends coming to Facebook

Griffin McElroy — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:30:00 EST

What's the pleasure in absolutely humiliating your friends and family in a battle of verbal wits if you have no way of flaunting your spelling superiority to your other friends and family? Zynga has announced a perfect new channel for you to broadcast your Words with Friends victories: Facebook, which will receive its own version of the Scrabble-like application, complete with the social networking features you've come to expect from the platform.

No release date has been announced for the wildly popular mobile title's port, though Kotaku reports that when it does launch, it will be completely compatible with Words with Friends players on iOS and Android smartphones. Personally, we think Facebook players would have a distinct advantage in this scenario, considering they can have the Scrabulizer open with a single, dishonest click.

Words with Friends coming to Facebook originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga buys Newtoy, renames it Zynga With Friends

Christopher Grant — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:02:00 EST

From a GDC rant about the perils of being a game developer laid off in this tumultuous economy to announcing an acquisition less than a year later, brothers Paul and Dave Bettner have been busy. The ex-Ensemble devs were laid off, along with the rest of the studio, after shipping Halo Wars in 2008; they then established iPhone-dev Newtoy and quickly made a splash with the "With Friends" games, Chess With Friends and the Scrabble-esque Words With Friends, along with the ngmoco-published (and very Farmville-esque!) We Rule.

And today, during a press conference call, Zynga SVP of Mobile David Ko made the announcement that the social game powerhouse has acquired Texas-based NewToy for an undisclosed sum. "Zynga has acquired Texas-based mobile game development company NewToy," Ko revealed, before passing the mic to Paul Bettner. Bettner will serve the acronymical roles of VP and GM of the studio, tasked with developing "new mobile social games for the Zynga network."

The 23-person studio is being renamed Zynga With Friends, as seen in the logo above, though the press release awkwardly refers to it as "The Zynga With Friends Studio." While this represents a strong move by Zynga into the mobile gaming space, we're left wondering if the "With Friends" mobile games will make their way to Zynga's home base: Facebook. We've followed up with the company to ask about just that.

Oh, and considering the new company's name includes "With Friends" we're going to assume that its World War Robot game is probably no longer in development. We'll let you know what we find out.

Zynga buys Newtoy, renames it Zynga With Friends originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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