Joystiq

Draw Something becomes a game show in UK

JC Fletcher — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST

The plans to adapt Draw Something, the app you probably still have on your phone from last year, into a primetime game show don't seem to have amounted to anything in the US, but a UK version is on the way.

Channel 4's "Draw It!" pits two teams of one contestant and one celebrity together to ... wait, it's not even called Draw Something? Victory Television made a deal with Zynga for the rights to the app, which is very popular, and then adapt it into a TV game show, and they don't even use the name of the app?

Without the name tie-in, this show is literally just Win, Lose, or Draw.

Draw Something becomes a game show in UK originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something studio CEO leaves Zynga

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:30:00 EST

It's been so long since we've mentioned a big-name Zynga departure, so here we go: Dan Porter, former CEO of Draw Something developer OMGPOP, which Zynga acquired a year ago for $200 million, has exited the company.

USA Today reports Porter, who served as VP of Zynga's New York office, leaves as the studio continues work on Draw Something 2. The original Draw Something has enjoyed over 100 million downloads since launching last February.

Draw Something studio CEO leaves Zynga originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something 2 is coming soon

Mike Schramm — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:00:00 EST

No, that's not a threat; it's a fact. Just about a year after Zynga bought developer OMGPOP, CEO Dan Porter has confirmed on Twitter that a sequel to Draw Something is coming soon. Porter says the new version of the game will feature "new ways to draw and connect," and TV host Ryan Seacrest has been posting screenshots that reveal new paint swatches and a number of other additions and upgrades. Don't worry: There's also a price-tag button right on the top bar, so the app will undoubtedly feature lots of in-app purchase options.

The original Draw Something (which was released on mobile platforms and Facebook) saw its daily users drop quickly after the Zynga acquisition, but OMGPOP recently announced the game has seen over 100 million downloads and 11 billion drawings in the year since release.

Draw Something 2 is coming soon originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something crests 100 million downloads after one year

Richard Mitchell — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:45:00 EST

After launching last February, Draw Something has penciled in 100 million downloads, Zynga has announced. The publisher released an infographic to celebrate the news, revealing some interesting facts about the game. Over the last year, 11 billion drawings have been made, with players spending over 28,000 combined years with the game. Furthermore, 22 million pizzas have been drawn, beating out the 11 million drawings of Lady Gaga.

This goes a long way toward confirming our long-held theory that pizza is precisely two times better than Lady Gaga.

Draw Something crests 100 million downloads after one year originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hasbro's Zynga board games now available, paradoxical

Richard Mitchell — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 04:00:00 EST

Lest you hadn't heard, Hasbro and Zynga recently teamed up to create board game versions of its popular video games. That includes a CityVille-themed version of Monopoly, a weird mash-up of FarmVille and Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Draw Something (the board game mechanics of which should be self-explanatory).

Bizarrely, the collection also includes a board game version of Words with Friends. Words with Friends is often cited as being very similar - practically to the point of infringement - to Scrabble, the classic word game published by ... Hasbro. Just to reiterate: this is the board game version of a video game version of a different board game published by a company that should be, in theory, a competitor.

Try not to let your head explode.

Continue reading Hasbro's Zynga board games now available, paradoxical

Hasbro's Zynga board games now available, paradoxical originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Zynga paid over $20M for A Bit Lucky; Draw Something executive leaves

Alexander Sliwinski — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EST

Zynga reportedly paid between $20-$25 million for "mid-core" developer A Bit Lucky, a pair of sources familiar with the deal tell Bloomberg. Zynga announced the acquisition of the developer a couple days ago, part of an initiative by the publisher to create deeper gameplay experiences that are attractive to a wide range of players, but can also be enjoyed by core gamers.

Also revealed in the past 24 hours: Wilson Kriegel, former chief revenue officer of Draw Something studio OMGPOP, has left the company. Zynga acquired the studio only a half year ago for $200 million.

Report: Zynga paid over $20M for A Bit Lucky; Draw Something executive leaves originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga and Hasbro make CityVille Monopoly, more, for when you're board

David Hinkle — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:30:00 EST

Pretty soon your mom won't need the computer to get her Words with Friends fix. The Zynga and Hasbro partnership will bear its first fruit this fall, when board game adaptations of CityVille, Words with Friends, Farmville and Draw Something hit retail, ABC reports.

CityVille Monopoly will be available in October for $24.99. It's a version of the Hasbro classic where players are tasked with building skycrapers instead of houses and hotels, and the first player to build four skyscrapers wins. Hungry Hungry Herd also releases in October, for $22.99, and is Hasbro's interpretation of FarmVille - it's just Hungry Hungry Hippos without the hippos.

Words with Friends will be available in two flavors this October and will play exactly the same as the online game, in the standard, $19.99 edition and a deluxe $39.99 edition with a rotating board. Not much is known on the fourth and final game, an adaptation of OMGPOP's Draw Something, which Zynga acquired for $200 million back in March. The board game adaptation of Draw Something is planned for late October/early November and will likely play a lot like Pictionary.

Zynga and Hasbro make CityVille Monopoly, more, for when you're board originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something game show pilot coming to CBS

Mike Suszek — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:00:00 EST

CBS will team up with Zynga to produce a pilot for a primetime gameshow based on the mobile game Draw Something. CBS beat a number of other networks in a bidding war to take on the Sony Pictures Television, Embassy Row, and Ryan Seacrest Productions project.

Ryan Seacrest, Michael Davies, and RSP CEO Adam Sher are teaming up as executive producers on the project. The show has players and celebrities use their drawing skills to win money. Seacrest's website added that "viewers at home will also be able play along and compete with for prizes using phones and tablets, ushering in a new era in game show viewing."

Seacrest is not anticipated to be the host of the show, according to Variety.

Draw Something game show pilot coming to CBS originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something wants you to draw ads with latest update

Jordan Mallory — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:30:00 EST

If you've noticed a lot of a hockey-themed subjects cropping up during your Draw Something playtime lately, it's not just because its hockey season and Zynga is trying to stay topical. Rather, it's all part of Draw Something's new advertising initiative, which allows sponsors to insert their brand/product/whatever into the game's list of drawable somethings.

The NHL is the first major sponsor to hop onboard, posting hockey-related doodles to an official Pinterest board. The concept was tested using recognizable brand names like KFC, Doritos and Nike, with the response being positive enough to implement the system for real. Whether this type of integrated, subtle advertising experience is preferable to banner ads remains a matter of personal preference, but we do love the idea of drawing a box of Toaster Scrambles(R).

This post fictionally brought to you by Pillsbury(R) Toaster Scrambles(R). "They're practically food!"

Draw Something wants you to draw ads with latest update originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 May 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Draw Something daily users declining rapidly

Richard Mitchell — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:30:00 EST

Draw Something users may be finding a new distraction, according to conclusions drawn by a new report from WebMediaBrands. As reported by the BBC, WebMediaBrands tracks Facebook usage as it relates to mobile applications. According to the data, the number of daily users that log in to Draw Something via Facebook dropped from 14.3 million 10.4 million from April 2 to May 2, suggesting that the game may be losing its death-like grip on the masses.

Zynga acquired Draw Something developer OMGPOP in March for a cool $200 million. It's important to note that the report doesn't include all Draw Something users, as it's also possible to connect with just an email address. Still, assuming the report is accurate, a decline of nearly 4 million daily users probably isn't the best news for the company after making such a large investment.

Report: Draw Something daily users declining rapidly originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 May 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga posts loss, beats estimates following OMGPOP acquisition

Mike Schramm — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST

There's good news and bad news for Zynga's financials. The good news first: Thanks to its purchase of Draw Something developer OMGPOP and some strong releases, the social game publisher beat quarterly revenue estimates from Wall Street, growing its year-over-year revenue to $321 million from $243 million. Zynga says it expects to make from $1.425 billion to $1.5 billion this year in total.

But the bad news is that outside of that big purchase, the company isn't showing the growth that Wall Street would like. Total monthly active users were up 24 percent, but analysts would prefer to see even more, and claim that Zynga only had a good quarter because of the acquisition.

Zynga also lost $85 million for the quarter. "They had to acquire to raise their numbers, but you're not going to be able to do that too many times," said Arvind Bhatia at Sterne Agee.

So Zynga will need to prove that it can sustain its growth outside of major acquisitions if it wants to keep stock prices up. We don't know much about the financial world, but would planting more corn help?

Zynga posts loss, beats estimates following OMGPOP acquisition originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga expects to acquire more companies to rival OMGPop deal

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST

When some people are rejected they use it as motivation to improve their own lives: start working out, eat healthier, study harder, create something beautiful. Other people take it personally and start manically hitting on anything in a 50-mile radius to prove that one person was so terribly wrong. Zynga, it turns out, takes rejection personally, and as companies are more people than people are, it's planning a years-long acquisition spree, CEO Mark Pincus tells Bloomberg.

Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, rejected an offer from Zynga for $2 billion, Bloomberg writes, and from 2010 to 2011 Zynga spent $147 million to acquire 22 companies, and $180 million on Draw Something's OMGPop alone. Zynga's merger chief Barry Cottle is searching for companies with blockbuster social games on the same scale as Farmville and Cityville, Bloomberg says.

Zynga plans to handle "a few" deals similar to or larger than the OMGPop acquisition in the next three to five years, Pincus says.

"We're sitting in a very advantageous position," Cottle says. "We have a significant amount of cash, we have no debt, and we have access to debt to be as aggressive as we need to be." Zynga has $1.81 billion in cash and short-term investments and its stock is unstable, dropping 3.2 percent this morning to $10.59, Bloomberg notes. Let's hope that with all those new employees Zynga is transplanting and taking on, a few of these acquisitions work out as expected.

Zynga expects to acquire more companies to rival OMGPop deal originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Draw Something hits 50 million downloads, becomes number one paid app

Jordan Mallory — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:15:00 EST

Draw Something has become the fastest selling mobile title in history, moving 50 million proverbial units since its launch last February -- 13 million of which were accumulated in just the last week. The pictionary-plus-'splosions app from OMGPOP is currently the number one paid app on the iOS App Store, dethroning Rovio's flagship rocket ship Angry Birds Space.

Broken down into impressive-yet-meaningless marketing figures, Draw Something has yielded six billion drawings in total, at a rate of 3,000 per second. We'd imagine that a large percentage of those drawings are boners, but new-owners Zynga have yet to release information that specific.

Draw Something hits 50 million downloads, becomes number one paid app originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga buys Draw Something dev OMGPOP [update: confirmed!]

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:35:00 EST

Draw Something developer OMGPOP was purchased by social gaming monolith Zynga today, Zynga announced. No price is disclosed in the announcement release, but the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog is reporting that OMGPOP went for the lofty price of $200 million. Sources with "first-hand knowledge" of the deal detailed it as a combined purchase amount of approximately $200 million between an outright cash transaction of $180 million, and "$30 million or so in employee retention payments." Payday for the Draw Something folks!

Beyond OMGPOP's massively successful, Pictionary-esque iOS and Android game, Draw Something, the New York City-based developer also brings a variety of Flash-based expertise to Zynga. The team will also add around 40 employees to Zynga's swelling numbers - the company repurposed NewToy into Zynga With Friends late in 2010, and did the same with NYC's Area Code in early 2011.

Additionally, OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter has become vice prez and general manager of Zynga New York (formerly Area Code), and OMGPOP will be rolled into the "Zynga New York" studio.

Update: During this afternoon's conference call regarding the purchase, OMGPOP said it would like to add picture saving and chat to Draw Something. No other potential updates were mentioned.

Zynga buys Draw Something dev OMGPOP [update: confirmed!] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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