FarmVille maker Zynga has acquired Bonfire Studios, a company founded by developers of the acclaimed Age of Empires PC strategy games and Halo Wars for Xbox 360.
The company developed Age of Empires and Halo Wars games while working at Ensemble Studios, a Microsoft game development studio that has since been disbanded. After founding Bonfire, the team began focusing on casual games. The only title to its name so far is the iOS social farming game We Farm, developed in cooperation with We Rule and Godfinger’s ngmoco. Expect more casual web or mobile titles from the Bonfire team moving forward.
Bonfire’s developers are part of a larger community of former hardcore game developers who’ve made the switch to the casual gaming side of the market, which is growing so rapidly that it may be hindering the traditional gaming industry. Zynga has made other acquisitions before, but this is the first acquisition of a studio with such a traditional pedigree.
Zynga has renamed the Texas-based studio “Zynga Dallas” and announced that the three founders and their team will develop original intellectual properties for Zynga. That means they won’t be cranking out any Age of Empires, Halo or even FarmVille-like games for Zynga, but rather building something entirely new and different. The Bonfire Studios website now reflects the name change but lacks additional details.
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