Zynga Acquires Floodgate Entertainment
File this news item under “what does it mean?“:
In Zyngaís 10th acquisition in ten months, the social gaming giant is announcing the acquisition of Massachusetts game developer Floodgate Entertainment.
…
Floodgate was spawned from computer game developer Looking Glass Studio. In 1990, Neurath founded Blue Sky Productions, which became LookingGlass in 1992. The company folded and Neurath founded Floodgate in 2000.
And Looking Glass was, of course, the studio that gave us the System Shock and Ultima Underworld series.
Now, to be fair, Floodgate produced a raft of games — including some social games — that weren’t particularly RPGish in nature. Still, Neurath is no stranger to making top-notch, story-driven RPGs, which makes me wonder if perhaps Zynga isn’t positioning itself to take on both whatever Richard Garriott has coming (with New Britannia) and whatever BioWare Mythic is working on (with their secret project).
Disturbing all around, but who can stop the wheels of progress? From Wikipedia:
“Zynga is supported in two manners: Via direct credit card payments and partner businesses.[19][20] Several Zynga games require an “Energy” characteristic to play. Engaging in “Missions”, a core feature of many games, consumes a certain amount of energy. After expending energy, it slowly replenishes to the character’s maximum limit. This can take minutes or several hours (energy replenishes whether or not players are logged into the game). After energy is replenished, players can engage in additional missions. Waiting for energy to replenish is a significant limiting factor in the games. Their support mechanisms take advantage of this.
Zynga games are linked to offers from a number of partners. Players can accept credit card offers, take surveys or buy services from Zynga’s partners in order to obtain game credits, which would allow them to replenish their character’s energy or receive premium currency that could be exchanged for other various virtual goods.
Players may also purchase game credits directly from Zynga via credit card[19] or PayPal. From within the game, players can purchase the points for a fee: USD$5.00 for 21 game credits, for example.
In March 2010 Zynga started selling prepaid cards for virtual currency at more than 12,800 stores across the US.[21]”
As if the hairs weren’t already standing straight up from a gameplay perspective, have some more exhilarating moments of computer gaming greatness:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zynga#Controversies
I have no problem with people making money, but when it’s done with zero respect to something I love dearly then I can’t help but be wounded. Ten acquisitions in ten months? Looks like the company itself is as much of a game as those they purportedly program. Fortunately their modus operandi hasn’t yet been recognized as an outright virus, so they may continue to legally profit from their social engineering efforts. Video games have entered a brave new world of stealthily shafting people at any cost, it seems.
Separately, I wonder what the collective creative influence was of all the companies they acquired, and if any employees voluntarily left due to ethical or moral concerns. I’m guessing those who disagreed probably got laid off before they formalized their opinions, but I’m just guessing.
Theyre not buying them for IP, theyre buying out the competition.
“Floodgate produced a raft of games — including some social games — that weren’t particularly RPGish in nature”
To be fair they DID produce the first NWN add-on: Shadows of Undrentide and they collaborated a but with Arkane Studios on Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah (did some english writing and music on the former, and additional design on the later).
But seems they basically stuck to casual games afterward. Which is kind of a shame methinks. I think if I was following Floodgate as it opened I would have expected them to do more RPGs like Looking Glass used to. Oh well.
Floodgate did SoU? I…did not know that. That was a good expansion pack.