Draw Something team included in Zynga layoff
Zynga's layoff effectively means the closure of OMGPOP, leaving Zynga's remaining U.S. offices to pick up the slack for the popular Draw Something franchise.
After Zynga announced it was laying off 18 percent of its staff, former employees took to Twitter to reveal that the action resulted in the closure of three offices for OMGPOP, the studio behind the popular Draw Something franchise. That leaves Zynga's remaining U.S. offices to pick up the slack the popular series and other games like CastleVille and CoasterVille.
The layoff announcement will lead to the closure of offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. While Zynga won't confirm the specific closures, former employees have tweeted about their fate. Zynga acquired New York-based OMGPOP for more than $200 million last year, according to tweets on Twitter from a few former employees and the OMGPOP account.
While this is the last day at @zynga for many @omgpop staff, we want to thank you for all love and awesomeness over the years!
— omgpop (@omgpop) June 3, 2013
OMGPOP recently launched Draw Something 2, a squeal to its popular Pictionary-style game that caught Zynga's eye in the first place. The Dallas studio -- which just went through a round of consolidation -- worked on several games, including CastleVille, and the Los Angeles office's portfolio included CoasterVille. Zynga isn't commenting on what will happen to the games, but the company will most likely shuffle the projects over to its existing U.S. offices.
Those locations include Austin,Texas; Mountain View, Calif., San Diego, Seattle, and its San Francisco headquarters -- all of which are currently hiring.