Zynga Setting Up A Studio In Beijing

• Posted by bbishop
• on May 19th, 2010

UPDATE2: Zynga Acquires XPD Media; Opens Office In Beijing.

Today Zynga posted three jobs on Craigslist Beijing: [UPDATE:These job listings appear to have been deleted from Craigslist. The links go to copies of the original postings. Strange that Zynga would post and then delete these, unless they jumped the gun on a more substantive announcement/partnership for China ]

Chief Technology Officer

Human Resources Manager

Software Engineer

I had heard Zynga execs have been spending time in Beijing, but I do not know who they have hired to run a Beijing development office (Too bad they didn’t call me; I am available). I assume Zynga is setting up an insourcing studio to create games for Facebook and overseas markets, as opposed to planning, at least in the near-term, to publish their games in China.

By setting up a China studio Zynga is following in the footsteps of Playfish (acquired by Electronic Arts last year) and Watercooler, which recently hired former NBA China executive Andy Lee to build its China operations. As I wrote last month, Rockyou has aggressive licensing plans in China, though so far they have not set up an office in China.

Zynga’s Beijing recruitment efforts are good news for individual game developers but bad news for game companies, as Zynga will increase competition for already scarce development talent and likely raise market rates for salaries. EA’s Playfish especially may suffer, as their employees are magnets for foreign social game firms coming into Beijing.

Please tell me what you think in the comments.

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