Yesterday we reported the closing down of OMGPOP, the studio that created the iOS hit Draw Something, which led to them being acquired by Zynga for a very tidy some, close to 200 million dollars. But a little over a year later, and just six weeks after the release of Draw Something 2, the plug was pulled by their new master, due to their continued struggles to stay relevant after the social gaming bubble had burst.
Now, one would assume that the people at OMGPOP would be sad, or angry, or both, since that's how on generally reacts to losing their job. But believe it, that's not exactly the case. In fact, some actually relieved. Why? Because working for Zynga was just that bad. According to Business Insider, citing a now former member of the studio:
"Most layoffs are sad. You imagine big corporate settings where security is there to lead people out of the office so they don't make a scene. This was the opposite. Music was being played loudly, and people were ripping up Zynga hoodies and T-shirts.
Anything that was Zynga was completely left there. The sentiment felt positive."
Another details what it felt when the bad news was delivered:
"There were no hard facts or figures. No real explanation. Just typical corporate BS… Everyone was just like, 'Yep.' Not surprised at all. It was like the weight had been lifted off our shoulders, that a decision had finally been made."
Business Insider also explains that the news was hardly a shocker. Following the unexpected departure of the Dan Porter, the man who founded the studio and who left in April, several other key employees also made an exodus. As for everyone else. there was simply less and less stuff to do. By the end, there were no future projects in the pipeline, just bug fixed for Draw Something 2.
Though the most telling revelation is sentiment that OMGPOP was never felt welcome by Zynga as a whole:
"It never felt like anyone other than [Mark] Pincus was really happy about us… I think everyone else was just pissed off because Zynga acquired a company that no one had really heard of before to do mobile."
In the end, the basic sentiment is:
"We thought, 'You just laid off your most talented mobile team… We were totally under-utilized.'"
