Murdoch gets into games

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corp has made a move on the games industry by purchasing San Francisco social start-up Making Fun.

The studio, reports VentureBeat, is headed up by PlayFirst co-founder John Welch and Twofish co-founder Lee Crawford, and has previously created games for brands including theme park giant Six Flags.

According to Welch Making Fun will develop titles for a range of platforms including social networking sites, smartphones and tablets, and will also act as News Corp’s game publishing arm. He has additionally revealed the sale to News Corp came about as a response to the dominance of the social space by both Zynga and ngmoco.

“Our goal is not to out-Zynga Zynga,” Welch has stated. “We’ve done games like Diner Dash that have gotten hundreds of millions of people. We are looking at the next games that could get those kinds of audiences.

Making Fun currently has three projects underway, and is looking to work with developers, with a view to consider acquisition. It’s first games are due in the summer.

“News Corp is patient,” stated Welch. “It wants to get into games, but not by spending a massive amount of money very quickly. It is willing to grow organically and start slow. On the other hand, News Corp doesn’t make investments so that it can create slow-growing businesses.”