New LA studio for fast-growing Zynga

Social game outfit Zynga will soon open a new development studio in Los Angeles, the company has announced.

The new LA office will be the developer’s third studio since its formation in 2007 – an aggressive expansion at a time when the industry is suffering successive studio closures, restructures, and mass-layoffs.

Zynga’s growing workforce now has local access to Silicon Valley’s breeding ground of talented developers. A recruitment ad for the new studio said the firm “is looking for all-star Flash developers” as well as product managers and server engineers.

The privately-held company’s expansion is a further indication that the social game market is booming. Zynga has already developed phenomenally successful titles such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille, both of which dominate networks such as Facebook.

“The reason we chose LA is because of the talent in both interactive entertainment and Web which is essential for social games,” the company told news site Games.com.

“Zynga LA will be very much like our Zynga East office in Baltimore where it will be a studio for our new games. We are looking to expand and scale our talent as we grow."

Last year Zynga made unfortunate headlines as its in-game advertising and revenue generation models courted controversy, reportedly for hiding scams and potentially confusing offers. After a prolonged hiatus, Zynga has returned to that monetisation model.

In November the company secured around $15 million in VC funding. Whether this was to help open the LA studio remains unclear for now.

Image: worlds in motion