Zynga buys iPhone game engine development team (Cocos2D/Zapus Media) | Hacker News Reader

Zynga buys iPhone game engine development team (Cocos2D/Zapus Media)

reuters.com

44 pointsalecco8 comments

I'm incredibly happy for the team, and hope they made out well. Cocos2D makes iOS game development a pleasure. I remember reading that one of the developers, riq, supports his family mainly on income from people occasionally buying the sample Cocos2D game source code ("Sapus Tongue"). This should be a nice change, especially if it allows him to continue working on the platform.

I had the luck of working in the same company as Riq many years ago. He is incredibly knowledgeable. Also as a person, he is such a nice and fun guy.

It's important to note Zynga will not be acquiring cocos2d itself, just two of its developers. I'm also glad to see Zynga will continue paying them to work on the platform, though I do wonder what sort of in-house tools they'll build for competitive advantage.

This could lead to problems in the future. With Ricardo working for Zynga, his priorities are going to shift--meaning lesser updates for Cocos2D. While I'm not completely sure about Zynga's business practices, perhaps it's time to look at the Cocos2D license very closely and fork it, if possible.

Also, since Zynga is already using Cocos2D, it is possible that any improvements or further work on the framework will not be released to the public. Purely speculation, but I can't see how Zynga would have any profit or benefit to having Cocos2D or improved versions of it in the open. Especially if it means that other developers/companies can develop with it.

Your comment sounds like FUD to me, for three reasons:

1) You haven't done your research, nor do you sound like an insider. Cocos2D is licensed liberally and a forked version could be used in closed-source commercial projects without any trouble. It took me under a minute to find the license. I think it's the MIT license. https://github.com/cocos2d/cocos2d-iphone/blob/master/LICENS...

2) It's based on fallacies. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's likely. Companies often benefit from outside contributions to their open source projects. Releasing an open source project doesn't always mean it's significantly easier to replicate a company's business model.

3) It's useless. It's not a serious attempt at getting a fork going. It's also commenting on a career decision that's already been made.

Congrats to Ricardo, Zynga, and Cocos2D!

I seriously doubt Riq would be OK with a move like that.

On an optimistic note, Zynga's resources could help fund the Android port (which is currently partly done). Congrats to Riq and Rolando!

this isn't the first set of game engine talent that zynga has acquired. very interesting to see what direction social gaming is headed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com