14 DAY TRIAL // With the clear trend in recent years towards 'casual gaming,' the name given to the (huge) market made up of people who would much rather play FarmVille than Call of Duty, two companies have come out, seemingly out of the blue, to dominate the two main areas where casual gaming has taken off, social networks and smart mobile devices.
The two companies, of course, are Zynga, the biggest name in social gaming which dominates the Facebook platform, and Rovio, the company behind the hugely popular Angry Birds game, now available on any device imaginable.
And now, there are talks of an all star team of sorts, as the two companies are in talks of a partnership or perhaps even an acquisition, All Things D, citing rumors in the gaming world, reported.
Zynga would be doing the buying, while Rovio has been growing tremendously, Zynga is a powerhouse bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
There's clearly 'synergy' between the two companies. Zynga dominates social gaming, but is very much dependent on Facebook. It has been making forays in the mobile space, but it's yet to make a splash on smartphones or tablets.
On the other hand, Rovio has more than 120 million Angry Birds players and has been dominating the download charts on pretty much every platform it's available on.
There are Angry Birds toys and even talks of an Angry Birds Movie, the company has a very strong brand. On the other hand, while Zynga's string of *Ville games have almost all been hits, it doesn't have the same brand recognition.
What's more, with Rovio's expertise, Zynga would have a much better chance of taking over the mobile space and depending less on Facebook. Of course, it's working with Google for the very same thing.
Still, Rovio may not exactly be looking to sell since it's going from strength to strength. That said, it's relying on a single game for all of this and a 'sequel' that even compares to Angry Birds is going to be tough to make.