Zynga flexes its haggling muscle, buys Shoptown maker Wild Needle

Zynga wants to win mobile like it's effectively won Facebook, and that's a goal without a price tag. The next mobile game maker to fall under the giant's shadow is Wild Needle, the Shoptown creator backed by Playdom co-founder Rick Thompson. Since its first game, Shoptown, has already been pulled from the App Store, TechCrunch reports this buy was solely for talent.

Of course, the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but is estimated at between $5 and $20 million, like most of the talent-focused deals Zynga has made in the past. Wild Needle focused on female-focused casual mobile games before it was picked up by the FarmVille house, a target audience that's right up Zynga's alley.

We imagine the Wild Needle team will be incorporated into one of Zynga's many mobile-focused game studios. It would be silly for the developer to use this talent for making games focused any other audience than women. Perhaps the company wants to attack CrowdStar's "Girl" franchise in the very place it ran to in hopes of escaping the mighty Zynga. Better run faster.

Are you excited to see what Zynga does with Wild Needle? Did you enjoy Shoptown while it lasted? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.