Zynga to Buy San Mateo Gaming Company

San Mateo-based digital gaming studio A Bit Lucky and its roughly 20 local employees will soon become part of Zynga's San Francisco division, news outlets reported Monday.

A Bit of Lucky produces Facebook-based games, such as its most popular title, "Lucky Train."

Industry experts say this move is part of Zynga's efforts to move toward more "mid-core" gaming options, and splitting its main offerings between sophisticated, highly-produced, packaged games, and casual games like the popular Facebook games FarmVille and Words with Friends, for which Zynga is most widely known, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury.

Zynga recently hired John Tobias, co-creator of the popular Mortal Kombat series, to help develop their mid-core gaming business.

Zynga is also still wrapped up in litigation, after being sued by Redwood City-based Electronic Arts recently, allegedly for infringing on EA's copyrights by gleaning too many features from EA's popular Sims series in Zynga games. Zynga is also reportedly suing EA, stating that EA has breached prior agreements between the two companies on the hiring of former employees between the two companies.

For the latest in local business news such as this, follow Patch! And don't forget to sign up for our daily e-newsletter and breaking news alerts, delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the San Mateo Patch daily newsletter | Follow San Mateo Patch on Twitter | Like San Mateo Patch on Facebook  | Blog for San Mateo Patch