In just six weeks, the mobile sketching game "Draw Something" has become such a mega hit that it knocked Zynga off the top of the social game charts. Last week, players created more than 1 billion drawings, about 3,000 per second.
Zynga responded Wednesday by purchasing OMGPOP, the 40-person New York company that created "Draw Something," in a deal reported to be worth around $200 million.
"The OMGPOP team has created a game that's fun, expressive and engenders real social interaction," said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said in a news release. "Draw Something has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. We love the way they've worked playful and relevant culture into their games from Devo to Daft Punk, from Lin to Beckham."
Instead of creating a "Draw Something" knockoff, as competitors have accused the San Francisco social game maker of doing in the past, Zynga may be hoping to duplicate the success it had when it bought "Words with Friends" creator Newtoy Inc. in 2010.
'Shared vision'
Chief Mobile Officer David Ko said during a news conference that the decision to buy OMGPOP was a combination of the game's success and the "shared vision" of the two companies for social games.
"We've been huge fans of them for a long time," Ko said.
Financial terms were not announced. OMGPOP will maintain its New York game studios and be headed by current Chief Executive Officer Dan Porter.
"Maybe we can turn New York City into a new hotbed for games as well," Porter said.
OMGPOP began in 2006 as an Internet game site called ImInLikeWithYou. The company has developed 35 online games like "Solitaire," Atari's "Missile Command," and "Fourplay," which looks like "Connect Four."
But by far the company's biggest success was "Draw Something." The game has been downloaded 35 million times in just six weeks, Ko said.
"It's a game that speaks to people of all ages all over the world," Porter said.
Players of the addictive "Draw Something" use the app to scribble drawings on their iPhone, iPad or Android device and have a friend try to guess the subject. The friend then returns the favor and each receive game coins as rewards.
Top downloads
The ad-free $1.99 version was No. 1 in the Apple App Store's most popular paid apps list last week, while the ad-supported version topped the most downloaded free app list.
The game has even been used by one player to ask another to the prom, according to a photo Porter tweeted before the sale was announced.
Porter said joining Zynga gives his company the ability to add some of the features requested by its 20 million registered users, like an in-game chat, photo galleries and the ability to draw their own portraits.
"We want to make games that connect people, we want to make people smile," he said. In negotiations with Pincus and Ko, he said, "It was clear from the beginning that Zynga really got what we wanted to do."
The company's next game, "The Street," described as a more urban version of Zynga's "FarmVille," is due out next week.
The deal was announced an hour before the close of trading on Wall Street and briefly boosted Zynga's stock above $14.40 per share. The stock closed at $13.72, up 33 cents.
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. bevangelista@sfchronicle.com
This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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