Social gaming firm Zynga has bought mobile games company Wild Needle in efforts to boost its game development talent.
The gaming startup launched in 2010 and secured funding of $2.5 million from Thompson and Shasta Ventures. It is not yet clear how much Zynga paid to acquire the team, but it is likely in the lower end of the companys spending range, estimated at between $5 million and $20 million.Wild Needle developed Shoptown Hero for iOS, a freemium social game that tasks players to save a small town from a tycoon called Fat Ralph using virtual store goods and customer negotiation, a nice little twist that is probably a homage to the new-found haggling power introduced with the global recession.However, the game did not really take off, with less than 100 likes on its Facebook page. It was discontinued at the end of last month, with no explanation for the reasons why, though obviously it was due to the Zynga deal. The website for the game and the studio itself have also been taken offline.It is not yet clear if Zynga will relaunch Wild Needles game or if it will simply get the staff to work on its existing projects. What is clear, however, is that this is unlikely to be the last acquisition Zynga will make this year in its efforts to dominate the social gaming arena.Source: TechCrunch
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