Zynga acquires Flowerz developer Floodgate
Ex-Looking Glass Studios veterans integrated into dev's Boston team
CityVille creator Zynga has acquired independent game developer Floodgate Entertainment, and is integrating its staff into the Zynga Boston team.
Floodgate is responsible for mobile titles including Flowerz and Civ IV: War of Two Cities, as well as PC titles such as Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide.
Many of the Floodgate staff are veterans of much-admired '90s developer Looking Glass Technologies, which created PC classics such as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Flight Unlimited, and Thief: The Dark Project.
Floodgate founder Paul Neurath founded Blue Sky Productions in 1990, which later merged with Lerner Research to create Looking Glass. Neurath with now take on the role of creative director at Zynga Boston.
"This addition showcases our commitment to working with top-notch talent that shares our passion for building innovative and fun social games," read comments on the Zynga blog.
According to that blog, the company is still looking to recruit more staff, both in the Boston offices and beyond - despite a bewildering array of acquisitions over the last twelve months. The company now has over a dozen development studios across the world and over 1500 employees.
Zynga is currently also attempting to diversify its product range and in particular to break its reliance on Facebook as a platform. The company needs to prove its success across multiple formats if it is to complete an IPO and take advantage of its recent valuation of $10 billion.