Socialeaf | Peter Del Bosque 03/25/2012 10:42 PM
Up until very recently, OMGPOP had been striving to stay afloat in the highly competitive mobile app market. They tried to break into the app revolution with meager success and had been inching along ever since. As chance would have it, until just about 7 weeks ago OMGPOP created an app called 'Draw Something.'
The 'Draw Something' app is similar to Pictionary. Players have to draw a picture about the randomly selected word or phrase that is generated for them via the app. The drawn picture, along with scrambled letters of the word or phrase, is then sent to an opposing friend who must then solve the puzzle. Solving correctly earns you points. Earning enough points allows a player to buy more items such as different colors for their color palette and/or bombs that can blow-up unnecessary letters.
With it's seamless Facebook integration, opponents can be easily found. The Facebook integration allows anyone to quickly select either a close friend or anyone at random. When someone finds a friend they want to play with, they are immediately given a list of three options of words or phrases ranging from beginner to difficult depending on the players skill preference. Once they're done drawing the picture, it is sent instantly to the recipient who then needs to guess the word or phrase based on the picture.
As a result of it's stunning simplicity, cute graphics and ease of use, 'Draw Something' has quickly gained both interest and success.
This new social game app exploded on the scene and began to draw interest among socialites and big-time game developers alike. There had been so much of an interest that famous social game developer Zynga gave OMGPOP an offer they couldn't refuse.
Just last week, Zynga, maker of social games such as Farmville, Words with Friends, Castleville and Zynga Poker, met with Mr. Foreman and his colleagues and offered them $180 Million dollars for the addicting mobile app, 'Draw Something.'
Although Mr. Foreman had not been directly involved with the creation of Draw Something, he did have a major stake in the company that allowed him to cash in big on the sale of this game. Mr. Foreman reportedly claims to be taking home about $22 million dollars as a result of Zynga's purchase. In a recent interview, Mr. Foreman said, “I had $1,700 in my bank yesterday, and now I have a whole lot more.”
Statistically speaking, since it's release on February 6th, Draw Something has been downloaded more that 35 million times and more than a billion drawings have been created from it's faithful users. With numbers this big in such a small amount of time, it is no wonder that Charles Foreman is now a millionaire and why Zynga quickly scooped up this new social game. Now with their new-found success, it is interesting to see what's next to come from their creative minds of OMGPOP.
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