Cue that piano jam from The Incredible Hulk. The Boston Globe and Mass High Tech report that Zynga Boston GM Nabeel Hyatt has left the Zynga subsidiary studio to become a partner at investment firm Spark Capital. Hyatt oversaw the studio's (formerly Conduit Labs), development of Adventure World, Zynga's first game to receive a complete branding overhaul with Indiana Jones."The office is still strong and growing," Hyatt told Boston Globe via e-mail, "with a solid success with 'Adventure World' and some other projects underway." According to The Boston Globe, former Pixar animation director and Adventure World product lead Fareed Mosavat has replaced Hyatt as general manager of Cambridge-based Zynga Boston.
Adventure World currently sits at 5.8 million monthly and 790,000 daily players, according to AppData, and hardly one of Zynga's eighth most popular with nearly 10 million fewer monthly players than Empires & Allies. Unfortunately, the game has seen a steady decline since receiving the branding makeover.
Hyatt's background is primarily in in all things entrepreneurial--he founded Conduit Labs to create music-centric social games--so the move makes sense. However, with Adventure World facing a downturn, it will be interesting to see what Zynga Boston cooks up next. Perhaps it's time for something entirely different at Zynga, like a return to the studio's musical roots.
Are you an avid Adventure World fan? What do you think/hope Zynga Boston might be up to next? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.