OMGPOP almost saved by old employees

Original Draw Something developer OMGPOP, was bought by Zynga last year for a cool $180 million (£117.36 million) and then closed down this year after the world and his dog forgot about the pictionary style game and its sequel. The team didn't go down without a fight though. They even offered to buy the OMGPOP website, games and the IPs behind them, but the Zynga upper management refused, apparently stating legal wrangling and costs as the reasons for it not being willing to sell anything.

OMGPOP staff were willing to take anything according to the TechCrunch breakdown. Perhaps not Draw Something, but how about just the company website? How about just a couple of the less popular titles? Zynga wasn't having any of it, announcing yesterday that as of 30th September the OMGPOP website would be shut down, along with most of the dev's games – though Draw Something and Draw Something 2 will continue for now.

Games set to be shut down include: Gem Rush, Pool World Champ, Cupcake Corner and Snoops.

OMGPOP staff may still continue to push for a sale of some properties, but it seems unlikely at this point. Realistically it would look pretty bad for Zynga if it sold off some of its assets and those same assets turned out to become incredibly popular just because they weren't associated with the Facebook game maker.

KitGuru Says: Don Mattrick has been there for a few weeks now and he is going to have to do something special to raise up Zynga morale. With studios closing left and right, it can't be a fun place to work. Keeping your head above water is the new business at Zynga, which seems so surprising considering less than two years ago it the biggest ever public stock offerings of a tech firm.

Become a Patron!