Austin's Challenge Games Acquired By Zynga, Makers of Farmville and Mafia Wars

Local social game company Challenge Games has been acquired by Zynga, the online gaming powerhouse behind Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Challenge Games launched in 2007 with Duels, a fantasy role-playing game, and has since added several more titles, including Warstorm, a collectible card game set in a fantasy universe, and Ponzi, a tycoon game. The latter two titles will be further developed by the Zynga team.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Andrew Busey, the co-founder and CEO of Challenge Games, will become Zynga’s general manager and vice president of the Austin studio. The Challenge Games team of 35 employees will be integrated into Zynga’s workforce.

San Francisco-based Zynga recently announced partnerships with Facebook and Yahoo that help cement its place as one of the largest developers of browser-based games.

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