San Francisco-based company Zynga has purchased the Oxford-based gaming firm Natural Motion for $527 million (approximately £319m).
NaturalMotion was founded in 2001 as an Oxford University spin-out company by evolutionary biology graduate Torsten Reil, now Chief Executive of the company. Amongst its most famous releases is the ‘Clumsy Ninja’ app, released in November of last year.
In a statement, Zynga CEO Don Mattrick said, “We believe that bringing Zynga and NaturalMotion together is the right step at the right time. Their creative portfolio aligns perfectly with our content strategy as Zynga will now have five top brands and capabilities in the Farm, Casino, Words, Racing and People categories”.
Torsten Reil added, “NaturalMotion set out to make games that wow millions of people, by being obsessed with quality, disrupting and creating genres, and using almost magical technology… When we started talking to Don and his team, it quickly became clear that they shared this vision.”
“Don’s background in AAA games and Zynga’s expertise in social game play and large-scale game operations will be invaluable to helping us grow our existing CSR and Clumsy Ninja franchises and maximize the breakout potential of our upcoming titles.”
Zynga is best known for its social media gaming, amongst the most prominent of which is FarmVille. They acquired NaturalMotion in an attempt to boost their presence in mobile gaming. The purchase was finalised on 30th January.
However, Zynga has seen problems in recent years, having struggled to cope with the transition away from online social media gaming, with shares falling by 75% since 2012. In recent days Zynga announced plans to lay off up to 15% of its workforce in a bid to cut costs.
Don Mattrick said, “NaturalMotion expands Zynga’s creative pipeline, accelerates our mobile growth, and brings next-generation technology and tools to Zynga that will fast-track our ability to deliver consumers more hit games. Bringing Zynga and NaturalMotion together is a bold step in the right direction at the right time”.
He added, “Combining NaturalMotion’s strengths with Zynga’s ability to develop breakthrough social features while sustaining live games over time, offers us a huge opportunity to redefine the gaming industry and deliver consumers blockbuster entertainment experiences”.
One undergraduate Computer Scientist said, “It would be a shame to see Zynga’s cost-cutting policy translate into redundancies in Oxford, but in this ever globalising world these sort of acquisitions are always going to happen. It will be interesting to see the result of this merger on gaming”.
