Chat and Challenge in Zynga’s Words With Friends, Now Available in the App Store for iMessage


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zynga (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading social game developer, this week announced its popular social game Words With Friends is now available to play directly in Messages on your iPhone or iPad. To access this first of its kind experience, download the Words With Friends iMessage app on any iPhone or iPad with the new iOS 10. 

"At Zynga, we are focused on developing brand new mobile gaming experiences on emerging platforms that bring our games directly to the places where players are already socializing,” said Scott Koenigsberg, Senior Vice President of Games, Zynga. “We are proud to be one of the first gaming companies to launch on the App Store for iMessage with a Words With Friends experience that feels authentic to Messages. Since its launch nearly 7 years ago, Words With Friends has proven to be a place where millions of people stay in touch with friends and family every day, and we are excited to provide wordies a new way to make moves and connect through iOS conversations in Messages.” 

Launched in 2009, Words With Friends has been installed more than 200 million times and is one of the App Store’s Top 10 free games of all time. An estimated 55 million active Words With Friends matches are played around the world at any moment, and more than 75 million words are played every day. 

With the Words With Friends iMessage app, players can have all the fun Words With Friends offers, right where they are already connecting with friends and family. Now players can make moves directly in Messages, invite friends and family to a match from their contact list and play faster than ever before with a compact game board and fewer tiles. Players can also indulge their love of words with several new ways to play including finding top competitors through the “Play Someone New” feature, up-leveling their vocab status and competing in the Weekly Challenge, earning badges as they succeed in the game. 

For more information on Words With Friends, visit the game’s community channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Game video and images can be found here: https://zynga.box.com/s/m1q93hy1cg5c1uoilu33tbmwyf7aqkio

About Zynga Inc.
Zynga Inc. is a leading developer of the world's most popular social games that are played by millions of monthly consumers. The company has created evergreen franchises such as FarmVilleZynga Casino and Words With Friends. Zynga's NaturalMotion, an Oxford-based mobile game and technology developer, is the creator of hit mobile games in popular entertainment categories, including CSR RacingCSR Classics, CSR2 and Clumsy Ninja.Zynga games have been played by more than 1 billion people around the world and are available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. Learn more about Zynga at http://blog.zynga.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the launch of Words With Friends iMessage app, the success of the game, gameplay and features for the game, and that we are focused on developing brand new mobile gaming experiences on emerging platforms that bring our games directly to the places where players are already socializing. The success of the matters covered by such forward looking statements involves risks. Actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, among other things, player interest in the game and features, player interest in the Casual category, our relationship and agreements with platform providers and providers of licensed content, our ability to launch future features for the game in a timely manner, our ability to monetize the game and features effectively, the effectiveness of our marketing program, our ability to implement new game technology and player reaction to this technology, and our ability to anticipate and address technical challenges that may arise. More information about the risks Zynga faces is included in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC, copies of which may be obtained at http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this release. We assume no obligation to update such statements.