Zynga Acquires Casino City Maker DNA Games

Social game mega-publisher Zynga today announced the acquisition of San Francisco-based Casino City developer DNA Games, the 14th such acquisition in the last 12 months. Founded in 2009, DNA Games has attracted over 1.5 million monthly players to its Casino City Facebook game, heading a three-title lineup with a combined 2.35 million monthly users, according to AppData. The company's web site describes its goal of creating hits consistently and repeatedly. The studio said it is "one piece game design 'art,' another piece user recruiting optimization 'science' and a third piece top-flight software engineering." Founder and CEO Jonathan Lee will serve as general manager of the studio under Zynga, reporting to senior VP Mark Skaggs. "DNA Games has a proven track record developing highly engaging social games and a technology platform that enables rapid iteration and optimization of game features and design," Zynga said in announcing the move. "Their expertise will be a valuable asset in next-generation game development for Zynga." Zynga's worldwide acquisition spree has included New York's Area/Code, Texas' Newtoy Inc., Tokyo's Unoh Games and Beijing's XPD, among many other social game developers.