SGN acquires social game developer Mob Science

Mob Science to remain independent, deal will bring 50M new users to SGN and double its portfolio

Cross-platform game developer SGN has picked up mobile developer Mob Science, it was announced Thursday, in a deal that will more than double the size of SGN's portfolio and will increase its user base by 50 million installed applications.

Mob Science will remain independent from SGN, and the 11 member team will continue to operate from its existing office in Carlsbad, California. Only now the studio will be getting additional resources, Josh Yguado, President of SGN, told me in an interview, including support from the SGN office, the marketing and analytics team. 

While no financial details were disclosed, Yguado would say that the acquisition was for a "mix of cash and equity." The deal will also put Mob Science's 10 current games, including Legends: Rise of a Hero, under the SGN umbrella, lifting the studio's total to 25 games. 

Mob Science was a good fit for SGN because they have the same values when it comes what games they develop, Yguado said.

When SGN was founded three years ago, its mission was to do things differently than the other gaming companies, who were putting out 10 to 15 games. Instead SGN wanted to create franchise games, one that users loved and would keep coming back to, instead of burning out on in a month.

The studio does this, he said, by studying analytics so it can find out what people really love about these games, and then continually adding in additional content to keep them coming back.

Mob Science takes a similar view with their games, evergreening them into franchises. In fact, the two studios "share the same belief," that creating long-term franchises are key to getting gamer's heart, Yguado said.

"We want our users to have emotional ties to the game."

The two studios also have a history, having worked together two years ago on a game called Cafe World, one of Mob Science's early titles. 

"Mob Science has come a long way since then," said Yguado. "They are taking the right approach and have blossomed into an amazing developer. They could be the future Supercell."

“Joining the SGN team is an amazing new opportunity for everyone here at Mob Science,” Michael Witz, Founder and CEO of Mob Science, said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing our games to new platforms with their cross-deployment technology as well as working together to create exciting new games throughout 2013 and beyond.”

Los Angeles-based SGN is a social mobile game developer that focuses on puzzle, social and casino games. 

The company, which has had over 300 million game installs in its lifetime, is currently seeing between 20 and 25 million monthly unique users. It doubled its revenue, and its numbers of employees, in 2012. And now it is expecting to see $50 million in revenue this year.

It currently has 100 employees, and offices in San Francisco and Buenos Aires. It raised $28 million from Austin Ventures to get started, but has been profitable from day one and has no plans to raise any additional money. 

Mob Science is joining SGN's prior acquisitions, which include Mindjolt, which Yguado describes as being "one of the biggest developers on Facebook at the time," and Hallpass Media, which he said helped build out SGN's web presence.

SGN recently recruited two other Zynga developers, and will add another senior developer from Mob Science. And the company expects to make even more studio acquisitions before the year is over. 

Mob Science, which was founded in 2008, raised a $1 million round of seed funding in March 2012. The investment came from tech veterans Joynet CEO David Young and Mark Surfas, the founder of GameSpy Industries.

The studio was one of the first three developers on the Zynga platform last year.