And the Zynga acquisitions just keep on coming.
Weeks after picking up Wild Needle and two months after acquiring OMGPOP, Zynga is making another big buy with Buzz Monkey, TechCrunch is reporting.
As part of the deal, Zynga is picking up fifty new employees along with Buzz Monkey’s Eugene, Ore. office. Zynga hasn’t officially announced the acquisition yet, so there’s no word on how much it paid for the company. We do know the acquisition price was low enough that Zynga didn’t need to disclose the buy to the SEC.
Started in 2001 by four former Dynamix employees, Buzz Monkey is a bit different from Zynga’s previous acquisitions. Unlike, say, OMGPOP, Buzz Monkey isn’t known for creating mass market, free-to-play games. The company is better known for larger console titles like Army of Two: 40th Day and the Tomb Raider series. More recently, Buzz Monkey moved into the smartphone gaming space with titles like Rinith Island, Fluid Monkey, and Block Rogue.
While it’s not likely that Zynga will shed its free-to-play roots, it’s become increasingly clear the company is on the verge of expanding into new territory. Last week, it hired Gears of War 2 writer Joshua Ortega as “senior narrative designer,” signaling Zynga’s interest in more narrative-driven experiences.
Given that Buzz Monkey has experience working on Facebook games, including smartphone titles and more ambitious console games, the company will be a major complement to Zynga’s ballooning stable of developers.
We’ve reached out to Zynga and Buzz Monkey and will update when the companies respond.
Filed under: VentureBeat 
via VentureBeat http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/U4SAT9rv7b4/
