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Farmville Dev Nets $180 Million From Facebook Investor
Perhaps you’ve logged onto Facebook and waded through piles of invites to games like Farmville and Café World. This might have something to do with the fact that there are 65 million Farmville players. Apparently Facebook investor Digital Sky Technologies has taken notice of these wildly popular games and are pumping 180 million dollars into Farmville developer Zynga.
"We are excited about our relationship with DST as they are a global player dedicated to creating services that are meaningful to consumers in the long term," says founder CEO of Zynga, Mark Pincus.
Social gaming is a huge development in the gaming world, catering to a vast array of “casual” gamers. With 230 million active users under their belt, the reach Zynga has accrued with their deceptively simple games is daunting. Digital Sky Technologies wants to make sure the developer keeps on delivering to fans and to growing their numbers.
"The investment from DST allows us to continue delivering on the promise of social games for consumers, making fun the biggest way for people to interact," Pincus continues.
Both Zynga and Digital Sky Technologies see eye to eye on connecting friends through social gaming. DST’s chief executive, Yuri Milner, believes that Zynga is in a good position to “succeed dramatically” with their current team and market share.
"Our earlier investment in Facebook and now in Zynga underscores our premise that social networking and social entertainment will define the next generation of the web," Milner asserts.
Okay, so we’re able to nurture virtual crops with our friends. Done. Now if we can convince Zynga to evolve their games to incorporate zombies or space marines (or both) they can absorb the rest of the gaming demographic. Anybody up for some SpaceZombieVille?
[Via Gamasutra]
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