Zynga Inc (ZNGA)

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ZNGA: MGM, PARTNER GAME SHOW,‘WORDS WITH FRIENDS’






“THE INTERACTIVE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE OF WORDS WITH FRIENDS MAKES IT THE PERFECT MOBILE GAME FOR US TO BRING TO PRIMETIME, FOLLOWING OUR SUCCESS WITH BEAT SHAZAM ON FOX,” SAID MGM PRESIDENT


THE SHOW WILL ALSO INCORPORATE ZYNGA’S WIDER PORTFOLIO INCLUDING ITS OTHER ‘WITH FRIENDS’ AND PUZZLE GAMES.






MGM, ZYNGA PARTNER FOR ‘WORDS WITH FRIENDS’ GAME SHOW

JOE OTTERSON
TV REPORTER @JOEOTTERSON

YouTube screenshot
July 19, 2017 | 09:00AM PT


MGM Television and Zynga are partnering to develop a new television game show based on “Words With Friends,” the companies announced Wednesday.
Since launching in 2009, “Words With Friends” has been installed more than 200 million times and is one of the App Store’s Top 10 free games of all time. An estimated 55 million Words With Friends matches are played around the world at any given moment and more than 75 million words are played every day.
“The interactive social experience of ‘Words With Friends’ makes it the perfect mobile game for us to bring to primetime, following our success with Beat Shazam on Fox,” said Barry Poznick, president of unscripted television for MGM. “Playing ‘Words’ is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we’ve created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay.”
MGM Television, which is headed by Mark Burnett, currently has unscripted series on all four major TV networks, including “Survivor” for CBS, “The Voice” for NBC, “Shark Tank” on ABC, “Beat Shazam” on Fox, and “Steve Harvey’s Funderdome” on ABC.
“Over the past eight years, ‘Words With Friends’ has proven to be a place where millions of people connect with their friends and family from around the world every day,” said Bernard Kim, president of publishing for Zynga. “We’re proud to partner with MGM, an industry leader in creating innovative and engaging programming, to extend the iconic gameplay and rich social experience of Words With Friends, and our broader collection of With Friends games, to new mainstream entertainment mediums.”
Filed Under:
• MGM Television
• Words with Friends
• Zynga

Source:

variety.com/2017/tv/news/words-with-friends-game-show-mgm-zynga-1202498965/





‘WORDS WITH FRIENDS’ GAME SHOW IN WORKS FROM MGM TV & ZYNGA

BY PATRICK HIPES
JULY 19, 2017 9:00AM

• TV
• Breaking News
• Development
• Beat Shazam
• MGM Television
• Words With Friends
• Zynga
Zynga

WORLD WITH FRIENDS, THE HIT MOBILE WORD GAME THAT HAS BEEN INSTALLED MORE THAN 200 MILLION TIMES since it began distracting your buddies since 2009, is getting the TV game show treatment. MGM Television and Zynga have made a deal to collaborate on the project, which will incorporate elements of other Zynga word and puzzle games.
Related

'Beat Shazam' Gets Season 2 Renewal On Fox

MGM TV’s unscripted success includes the Mark Burnett-created The Voice on NBC, CBS’ Survivor, ABC’s Shark Tank and Steve Harvey’s Funderdome. Its most recent hit, Fox’s Beat Shazam — hosted by Jamie Foxx and also based on a mobile app — was just renewed for Season 2.

“THE INTERACTIVE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE OF WORDS WITH FRIENDS MAKES IT THE PERFECT MOBILE GAME FOR US TO BRING TO PRIMETIME, FOLLOWING OUR SUCCESS WITH BEAT SHAZAM ON FOX,” SAID MGM PRESIDENT of unscripted television Barry Poznick. “Playing Words is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we’ve created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay.”
Zynga says an estimated 55 million Words With Friends matches are played globally at any given moment, with the app available on all platforms including Facebook. The game is most similar in rules to Scrabble, but the mobile game features chat and random opponent functions, and as many as 30 games can be played at once.
“OVER THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, WORDS WITH FRIENDS HAS PROVEN TO BE A PLACE WHERE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CONNECT WITH THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY FROM AROUND THE WORLD EVERY DAY,” SAID BERNARD KIM, PRESIDENT OF PUBLISHING AT ZYNGA. “WE’RE PROUD TO PARTNER WITH MGM, AN INDUSTRY LEADER IN CREATING INNOVATIVE AND ENGAGING PROGRAMMING, TO EXTEND THE ICONIC GAMEPLAY AND RICH SOCIAL EXPERIENCE OF WORDS WITH FRIENDS, AND OUR BROADER COLLECTION OF WITH FRIENDS GAMES, TO NEW MAINSTREAM ENTERTAINMENT MEDIUMS.”


Source:

http://deadline.com/2017/07/words-with-friends-tv-game-show-mgm-television-zynga-1202131105/


NEWS
ZYNGA PARTNERS WITH MGM FOR NEW WORDS WITH FRIENDS TV GAME SHOW
DATE TYPE COMPANIES INVOLVED SIZE
JULY 19TH, 2017 PARTNERSHIP MGM INTERACTIVE
ZYNGA


• ZYNGA
JULY 19TH, 2017 - 05:17PM
BY CRAIG CHAPPLE, EDITOR
Mobile publisher Zynga has partnered with MGM Television to develop a new TV game show based on Words With Friends.
THE SHOW WILL ALSO INCORPORATE ZYNGA’S WIDER PORTFOLIO INCLUDING ITS OTHER ‘WITH FRIENDS’ AND PUZZLE GAMES.
Words With Friends has been hugely popular since its launch in 2009. It’s been downloaded more than 200 million times, and an estimated 55 million matches are said to be ongoing at any given moment.
No further details on what form the game show will take were provided.
Words with TV
"The interactive social experience of Words With Friends makes it the perfect mobile game for us to bring to primetime, following our success with Beat Shazam on Fox," said MGM President of Unscripted Television Barry Poznick.
"Playing Words is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we've created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay."
MGM Television has produced a number of competition shows including Beat Shazam, The Voice, Survivor and Shark Tank. It has also worked on other TV shows such as Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale and Vikings.
News of a partnership between MGM and Zynga comes shortly after CBS debuted a new show based on King’s hugely popular Candy Crush games. The debut episode of the game show brought in 4.1 million viewers.

Source:

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/66234/zynga-mgm-words-with-friends-tv-game-show/



JULY 19, 2017 9:00AM PT BY MICHAEL O'CONNELL
'WORDS WITH FRIENDS' BEING DEVELOPED FOR TV

Screengrab/Zynga
MGM TV and mobile game Zynga have partnered for a potential game show based on the social app.
Pretty soon, you could be playing Words With Friends with complete strangers.
MGM Television and mobile devise gaming kingpins Zynga have partnered to translate the popular spelling challenge to TV. Though there's no network attached just yet, the development is in follows similar launches in CBS' Candy Crush and Fox's app-friendly Beat Shazam (also from MGM TV).
"The interactive social experience of Words With Friends makes it the perfect mobile game for us to bring to primetime, following our success with Beat Shazam on Fox," said Barry Poznick, MGM's president of unscripted television. "Playing Words is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we've created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay.”
Words With Friends, which has somehow evaded legal obstacles with Scrabble, is hugely popular. It ranks as one of the iTunes app store's all-time top 10 free game downloads with more the 200 million installations to date an an estimated 55 million matches being played globally at any given moment.
“Over the past eight years, Words With Friends has proven to be a place where millions of people connect with their friends and family from around the world every day,” said Zynga publishing president Bernard Kim. “We're proud to partner with MGM, an industry leader in creating innovative and engaging programming, to extend the iconic gameplay and rich social experience of Words With Friends, and our broader collection of With Friends games, to new mainstream entertainment mediums.”
MGM TV said in a Wednesday release that the show, should it go to series, would incorporate aspects of the Zynga suite of Words games but nothing else.
Beat Shazam was just renewed for a second season.

Source:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/words-friends-being-developed-tv-1022423




‘WORDS WITH FRIENDS’-OBSESSED? ZYNGA MOBILE GAME TO BE ADAPTED AS TV SHOW BY MGM
REMEMBER, “XU” AND “XI” ARE BOTH VALID — JUST HIT THAT TRIPLE LETTER SCORE RIGHT
TONY MAGLIO | JULY 19, 2017 @ 9:00 AM

Remember when “Words With Friends” was called “Scrabble”? Remember when “Scrabble” was a TV game show? Of course you don’t.
Either way, MGM Television and social game developer Zynga are teaming up to turn “Words With Friends” into a TV game show. The series “will also incorporate aspects from Zynga’s larger portfolio of ‘With Friends’ word and puzzle games,” according to a Wednesday media release.
Since its 2009 launch, “Words With Friends” has been installed more than 200 million times and is one of the App Store’s Top 10 free games of all time, per Zynga and MGM. An estimated 55 million “Words With Friends” matches are played around the world at any given moment, and more than 75 million words are played every day.
Also Read: Ratings: 'Candy Crush' Dissolves 29 Percent of Its Debut Viewers
“The interactive social experience of ‘Words With Friends’ makes it the perfect mobile game for us to bring to primetime, following our success with ‘Beat Shazam’ on Fox,” said Barry Poznick, president of Unscripted Television, MGM. “Playing ‘Words’ is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we’ve created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay.”
“Over the past eight years, ‘Words With Friends’ has proven to be a place where millions of people connect with their friends and family from around the world every day,” added Bernard Kim, president of Publishing, Zynga. “We’re proud to partner with MGM, an industry leader in creating innovative and engaging programming, to extend the iconic gameplay and rich social experience of ‘Words With Friends,’ and our broader collection of ‘With Friends’ games, to new mainstream entertainment mediums.”
The companies should hope that “Words With Friends” eventually performs like “Candy Crush” on CBS did in its first week’s Nielsen ratings, and not how the second episode fared.


Source:

http://www.thewrap.com/words-with-friends-tv-show-zynga-mgm/




GAMES
Zynga and MGM are planning a Words With Friends TV show
Dean Takahashi@deantak July 19, 2017 10:52 AM


Above: New Words With Friends
Image Credit: Zynga
Zynga has teamed up with MGM Television to develop a primetime TV show based on Zynga’s Words With Friends puzzle game.
There’s a trend to combine games with TV game shows, and it’s either a brilliant way to do cross marketing — or a doomed effort to save TV as millennials go online for their entertainment.
Zynga is experimenting with new platforms to broaden the reach of Words With Friends, much like Activision Blizzard’s King division is doing with its new Candy Crush TV show. And the Future Group has a new format for game shows that combines virtual world play on mobile devices with live actors playing on TV.
Words With Friends is turning eight years old this week, and it has a good shot at becoming a “forever game” that keeps bringing in revenue for Zynga. Since launching in 2009, Words With Friends has been downloaded more than 200 million times and it is one of Apple’s top 10 free games of all time. An estimated 55 million Words With Friends matches are under way at any given moment.
“The interactive social experience of Words With Friends makes it the perfect mobile game for us to bring to primetime, following our success with Beat Shazam on FOX,” said Barry Poznick, president of Unscripted Television at MGM, in a statement. “Playing WORDS is a daily ritual for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and we’ve created the perfect format to capture their competitiveness and creative wordplay.”
Zynga also partnered with Facebook to bring the first ever turn-based game to Messenger with Words With Friends for Instant Games. And Zynga is in the early testing phases of a new Words With Friends sequel.

Above: Words With Friends for Messenger.
Image Credit: Zynga
“Over the past eight years, Words With Friends has proven to be a place where millions of people connect with their friends and family from around the world every day,” said Bernard Kim, president of publishing at Zynga, in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with MGM, an industry leader in creating innovative and engaging programming, to extend the iconic gameplay and rich social experience of Words With Friends, and our broader collection of With Friends games, to new mainstream entertainment mediums.”
MGM Television has a slate of competition shows, including Beat Shazam on Fox hosted by Jamie Foxx, Steve Harvey’s Funderdome for ABC, The Voice (NBC), Survivor (CBS) and Shark Tank (ABC).

Source:

https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/19/zynga-and-mgm-are-planning-a-words-with-friends-tv-show/