Zynga Acquires Echtra Games To Expand Cross-Platform Technology

Zynga Inc ZNGA announced on Wednesday it will acquire San Fransisco-based Echtra Games, the latest move the company has made towards dominating the gaming industry. The financial details of the acquisition have yet to be disclosed.

What Happened: Zynga, the company that brought social simulation game Farmville to mobile and Facebook Inc FB users across the world, is delving into the role-playing game (RPG) genre with its latest acquisition.

The Echtra team, who boasts Max Schaefer as co-founder and CEO, will join Zynga to develop a new cross-platform RPG game in partnership with Zynga's NaturalMotion studio.

Why It Matters: With this acquisition, Zinga continues to expand its gaming portfolio and increases its customer base by strengthening cross-platform play technology — a feature that allows gamers to play together using different types of hardware.

Max Schaefer is an iconic cross-platform gaming industry veteran who not only co-founded Echtra Games, but also Blizzard North, Flagship Studios and Runic Games. Under his leadership, Schaefer’s teams developed some of the most well-known RPG titles such as Diablo, Diablo II and the Torchlight franchise.

“Max and his team at Echtra Games are responsible for some of the most legendary game properties ever created, and they are experts in the action RPG genre and cross-platform development,” said Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga said in the press release.

What’s Next: Gamers will have to wait to see what new RPG experience Echtra’s team develops under Zynga’s management.

The acquisition should excite investors as gaming's popularity has increased during stay-at-home orders brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. When Zynga released its fourth-quarter 2020 earnings results on Feb. 10, its revenue rose 61.26% from the same quarter the previous year.

This latest acquisition comes on the heels of a flurry of new game releases, acquisitions and partnerships announced in 2020. In June 2020, Zynga announced that it had entered into a partnership with Snap Inc SNAP to create multi-player games for its platform. In July and August 2020, Zynga also acquired Istanbul-based Peak and Rollic Gaming in a move intended to drive margin expansion and offer customers more choices of gaming genres.

(Photo: Zynga)