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Zynga logo
Zynga is an American video game developer, located in San Francisco, California, United States.[1]
It was founded in April 2007 by Mark Pincus, Eric Schiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Michael Luxton, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader under the name 'Presidio Media'. In July 2007, that name changed to 'Zynga'.[2] The name 'Zynga' came from CEO Mark Pincus' deceased American bulldog, named 'Zinga'.[3] Hence the bulldog in the logo.
YoVille/YoWorld history[]
Zynga old logo
Zynga purchased YoVille in July 2008[4] from the company 'Tall Tree Games' (now Big Viking Games). The game was one of Zynga's most prominent early purchases.[5]
In 2009, Zynga created the YoVille Forums (now YoWorld Forums). This became the official forums of the game on www.yoville.com.
In 2010 Zynga held several promotions for the game by partnering with 7-Eleven Inc.[6]
Around March 2011, Zynga transferred the YoVille studio from San Francisco to India.[7] It was believed that the game became less maintained since the transfer as existing software bugs remained without being fixed.[citation needed]
During July 2012, Zynga introduced the V.I.P. feature to allow players to pay for a monthly subscription in order to get access to exclusive items and be able to purchase items at a discounted price. A few months later in November 2012, Zynga introduced the Auction House in the game. This let the players have another way to buy and sell items in the game.
Somewhere around mid 2013, it was announced that Myspace would get rid of YoVille and a bunch of other games with their new platform launch.[8] After this news, Zynga informed players that they could migrate their Myspace YoVille accounts to Facebook.[9]
On January 10, 2014, Zynga officially announced that they would close YoVille on March 31, 2014.[10] A small month later, news got out that Big Viking Games was considering to re-acquire the game.[11]
Controversy[]
On October 31, 2009, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch accused Zynga of intentionally working with scam advertisers, and that lead generation made up a third of Zynga's revenue.[12][13] For promoting such offers, several lawsuits were filed against Zynga. One of those was the lawsuit Swift v. Zynga in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for violation of the Unfair Competition Law and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, after the lead plaintiff's credit card was billed more than $200 for offers she completed to receive YoVille currency.[14][15]
Other Games[]
Facebook Games[]
- Empires & Allies
- FarmVille
- FarmVille
- Farmville Harvest Swap
- Hit It Rich! Casino Slots
- Princess Bride Slots
- Spin It Rich
- Willy Wonka Slots
- Wizard of Oz Magic Match
- Wizard of Oz Slots
- Word Streak With Friends (formerly Scramble With Friends)
- Words with Friends
- Zynga Poker
Mobile Games[]
- Chess with Friends
- Crazy Cake Swap
- Crazy Kitchen
- Draw Something
- Drop7
- Empires & Allies
- FarmVille 2: Country Escape
- Farmville Harvest Swap
- Farmville Tropic Escape
- Gems With Friends
- Hanging with Friends
- Hit It Rich! Casino Slots
- Ice Age: Arctic Blast
- Looney Tunes Dash
- Matching with Friends
- Princess Bride Slots
- Speed Guess Something
- Spin It Rich
- What's The Phrase
- Willy Wonka Slots
- Wizard of Oz Magic Match
- Wizard of Oz Slots
- Word Streak With Friends (formerly Scramble With Friends)
- Words with Friends
- Words on Tour
- Yummy Gummy
- Zynga Poker
- Zynga Poker Classic
References[]
- ↑ Zynga, "About Zynga", www.zynga.com
- ↑ Reuters | Liana B. Baker and Alistair Barr, "Meet Mark Pincus: The Competitive ‘Control Freak’ Leading Zynga To IPO", www.huffingtonpost.com
- ↑ Jessica Shambora, "Zynga suddenly is everywhere. What gives?", fortune.com
- ↑ Zynga, "Zynga Completes $29 million Financing, Led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers" press release Archived 2009-04-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Paul Tassi, "Why Big Viking Wants To Save 'YoVille' From Zynga's Axe" | News and opinion, www.forbes.com
- ↑ CSP Daily News, "7-Eleven, Zynga Offer FarmVille Products, Gifts", www.cspdailynews.com
- ↑ IDG News Service | John Ribeiro, "FarmVille Game Developer Opens Studio in India", www.cio.com
- ↑ Summer, "Myspace Is Getting Rid Of YoVille Along With Other Games!" YoRehab.com news article Archived at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Agent Chaos, "MySpace: Yoville Migration" YoRehab.com news article Archived at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Troy Wolverton, "Zynga to shut down YoVille game", www.siliconbeat.com
- ↑ Darrell Etherington, "YoVille Creator Seeks To Avoid The Game’s Death By Buying It Back From Zynga", techcrunch.com
- ↑ Michael Arrington, "Scamville: Zynga Says 1/3 Of Revenue Comes From Lead Gen And Other Offers", techcrunch.com
- ↑ Michael Arrington, "Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell", techcrunch.com
- ↑ Ryan Tate, "Initial Complaint in Swift vs. Zynga" at valleywag.gawker.com Archived 2010-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Complaint, Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc. et al - 3:09-cv-05443 (PDF), www.pacermonitor.com