Provider of social casino and other games Zynga announced that it is to acquire startup gaming studio Rising Tide Games in a bid to further its commitment to the growing social casino games sector.
Rising Tide Games was founded by industry experts Stuart Zoble, Maytal Olsha, Peter Franco, and Andrew Sega. All of them have years of experience in the area and are to work together with Zynga for the further establishment of their company on the market.
Maytal Olsha, Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rising Tide Games, said that she is extremely happy to be able to work once again with Zynga and its team. Ms. Olsha is a former Zynga executive. She further noted that they are determined to provide players with excellent free-to-play social casino games and unique gaming experience.
Since being founded, Rising Tide Games has been focusing on the development of free-to-play social casino and other games that feature pop culture themes, special VIP programs, and personalized player experience.
Commenting on the acquisition deal, Stuart Zoble, Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rising Tide Games, said that being a “data driven development team”, they consider it really important to join forces with a company that shares their commitment in creating the best experience for players.
The executive also noted that given Zynga’s previous experience in the development of social casino games, such as Zynga Poker and a number of slots titles, they believe that they can create even more exciting and engaging free-to-play social casino games which are to be available on all kinds of platforms and devices.
In 2013, Zynga acquired Spooky Cool Labs, whose team was behind the gaming company’s most popular slots titles. Since then, Zynga has been determined to constantly expand its presence on the free-to-play social casino market.
After launching its new slots titles, the company saw its social slots franchise bookings increase the impressive 274% between the second quarter of 2014 and the same three-month period of 2015. Zynga pointed out that it expects a further growth as it is to introduce new slots titles, some of which will be intended for mobile devices.
Mark Pincus, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zynga, commented that they are extremely excited to welcome the team of Rising Tide Games at a time when the company plans to expand its social casino game product offering. Mr. Pincus noted that Zynga Poker is still the most popular free-to-play social game and that both their poker and slots teams will keep on working hard in order to deliver customers with more delightful titles.
