San Francisco-based social gaming giant Zynga announced today it has acquired the team from Waltham, MA-based game studio Floodgate Entertainment. Financial details weren’t given, but the deal is Zynga’s 10th announced acquisition in as many months (including Cambridge, MA-based Conduit Labs, which is now Zynga Boston). Floodgate is led by a number of employees from the late Looking Glass Studios, including founder Paul Neurath, who is joining Zynga Boston as creative director. Looking Glass was known for creating games such as System Shock, Thief, and Ultima Underworld. Floodgate is known for its casual, mobile, and PC games like MoPets, Flowerz, Madden NFL 2005 and 2006, and NASCAR 07.
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
View all posts by Gregory T. Huang