Zynga announced during its earnings results that Draw Something 2 is now available on iOS devices. Unlike other sequels that would be content with adding new words, OMGPOP has added a number of new features that encourages more sharing. Players can also finally save their own creations as well as the creations of others for later viewing:

For the first time, players can save their drawings in their own galleries and check out the work of other burgeoning artists and celebrities too. The game has a full spectrum of new tools and colors, allowing players to tap into the full limits of their creativity. There are new textures and patterns, like zebra, plaid and camouflage; and new tools, like an 8bit Pixel Pen, Sparkle Pen, stamps, highlighter, crayon and more. There are also more than 100 new vibrant colors. The new Free Draw option gives players creative freedom to draw freestyle and share their art with the world.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a sequel without some new words. Zynga says that Draw Something 2 features thousands of new words, including words “that touch on the latest pop culture trends and current events.”

Draw Something 2 is now available for iOS devices in the App Store. Zynga says it will be on Google Play shortly.

Of course, this success has to be measured against more recent successes, such as Angry Birds Space, which reached 50 million downloads in only 35 days, or Temple Run 2, which reached 50 million downloads in only 13 days.

Though it turns out that Draw Something was largely a short-term fad, there are still some mobile gamers trading drawings with each other. Also, the game has spawned a TV show project (basically a reboot of Win, Lose, or Draw).

Today it was announced that Draw Something has officially reached 100 million total downloads.

The announcement was made by Zynga, which acquired Draw Something developer Omgpop for $180 million soon after the the game became a sensation. Since that time, Zynga has announced massive layoffs and the company’s stock has taken a nose dive. In its latest financial results, the company announced that it hopes to shift its focus toward building social gaming franchises on mobile platforms.

(Infographic courtesy Zynga)

The show was first announced back in June, and will be a CBS production, with the help of Ryan Seacrest (who will host). The Win, Lose or Draw-esque game show will look like this, according to the casting site:

DRAW SOMETHING is a dynamic, interactive game show where two teams consisting of one celebrity and one fan of the Draw Something app test their creativity and compete by drawing and guessing words to earn cash!

The online application form is pretty standard – name, address, location, age, etc. It also requires that you upload a photo of yourself and a photo of one of your most-cherished works. So if you still have the amazing drawing of Tupac you spent way too much time on, now is the time to show it off.

Draw Something’s creators OMGPOP sold to social gaming giant Zynga back in March, and still has a devoted fan base although enthusiasm has waned since the acquisition. Maybe some star power can reignite the obsession.

[h/t The Daily What]

For their part, Zynga seems pretty happy with the acquisition. Even if “Draw Something” has lost almost half of its users with 5 million being lost in April, it’s still a big revenue stream for the company. Of course, that revenue seems to be more supported by ads than anything else.

It’s those ads, however, that may be driving users away. When Zynga announced a deal with major brands that would bring products into the game, users probably got out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to draw “Doritos” in a game that got popular for hilarious double-entendres. The acquisition by Zynga could have also played a hand in its reduced popularity since people may have seen the buyout as a sign of selling out.

Zynga certainly doesn’t think that way about the game as they call it an “evergreen franchise.” The hope is that it will remain popular for a long time to come. The game still has some 7 million daily active users. If they can keep those users on board, then it shouldn’t be a problem. To keep interest high, they have begun adding in social features.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Zynga is announcing more partnerships for Draw Something that should help keep popularity high. The most recent deal has Zynga partnering with Dreamworks Animation for its newest stupid talking animals Madagascar film. The deal will not only see advertising for the film appearing in game, but task players to draw characters from the film.

WSJ also says that Zynga plans to expand “Draw Something” into a franchise of sorts. It’s the same thing that they did with Farmville when they released other titles with “Ville” in the title like Cityville and Frontierville. How will that work with Draw Something? We don’t know yet. Maybe they can make a game called “Draw This Particular Object” or “Draw Up A Check Payable To Zynga.”

Analysts are not as excited as Zynga is for the future of “Draw Something.” They feel that the Zynga’s attempt to grow and monetize the franchise is only going to devalue both the game and OMGPOP. I think it’s still too early to tell, but losing almost half of your users since the acquisition is a pretty big deal. Zynga is going to have to work hard to make “Draw Something” appealing to users again.

If you purchased a copy of “Draw Something”, then you don’t have to worry about the extremely annoying ads that pop up in-between turns. However, just because you paid for the game doesn’t mean you’re free from Zynga’s attempt to make some money off of the app. The company recently began inserting brand names into the game, which, of course, are paid for by the corporations who make these products. So when you’re asked to illustrate, say, “Doritos”, it’s because the company dropped some serious cash for its inclusion in the game.

Sorry, but I’m not really interested in drawing your advertisements. Thanks, anyway. However, I’m apparently one of the few people who has some sort of misguided problem with this practice.

“People loved to draw the Colonel and bags of Doritos,” said OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter. What I would love to see is someone attempting to draw the Colonel or a bag of Doritos while eating a greasy bucket of chicken with their cheese-encrusted fingers.

Brand names aren’t the only paid additions to the game. The National Hockey League paid to have terms such as “hockey” and “puck” added to the app’s in-game list. The company has even been sharing some of the illustrations on sites like Pintrest.

Recently, “Draw Something” was picked up by Zynga, who is on a quest to acquire all of the popular apps and games you hold dear to your heart. Although the number of people playing “Draw Something” has dropped somewhat in recent months, the game is still ridiculously popular.

Am I being a cynical shrub for rolling my eyes at the inclusion of paid brands in the game? Let me know what you think about the latest “Draw Something” update in the comments section.

“Every week, we rotate a bunch of new words through the game and take out older words,” OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter told Mashable. “We look at music charts, TV, movie releases, and the like to take the pulse of what’s popular and include it in the game.”

In addition to the batch of new people to draw, players are presented with a host of updated features, including the ability undo your last stroke, leave comments, and save their masterpieces to share with others at a later date. You know, just in case you have the ability to bring something to life that isn’t cringe-worthy.

Haven’t heard of “Draw Something”? Chances are you’re one of the last people on the planet who hasn’t been sending crudely illustrated drawings to your friends and family. The game was downloaded 50 millions times in just 50 days, an impressive feat by anyone’s calculations. My addiction level isn’t nearly as drastic as some people I know, though I’ve certainly pieced together my own fair share of impossibly poor creations for all to see.

Some of the recent celebrity additions to the game include Antonio Banderas, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Demi Moore, Ryan Seacrest, Ozzy Osbourne, and Al Pacino, among others. For an example of how this game is played by those with genuine artistic talent, have a look at the handful of images below.

At this time, OMGPOP’s Facebook games weren’t doing well, and CEO Dan Porter was forced to lay off a bunch of the company’s flash developers. Soon after, OMGPOP launched “Draw Something,” which quickly became ridiculously popular, with about 35 million downloads in 6 weeks. This grabbed the attention of Zynga, the sale was made, etc. But apparently, Porter quickly rehired all of the laid-off developers so they would be able to cash in on the merger. According to a source close to the situation, below is the story, as relayed to Business Insider:

OMGPop was not getting traction on Facebook, but it still had a bunch of flash developers.
Porter could have moved them around to mobile or other projects but money was running tight. To extend the company’s runway, he had to let them go. This move bought OMPGPOP another month or two of runway. It was purely a financial decision and a really tough one. The company tried to find jobs for the people who were fired. Once Draw Something took off and it looked like we might do a deal, CEO Dan Porter hired the fired workers back ASAP. He was literally negotiating the deal and jamming the re-hires back into payroll to make sure they were covered with hours remaining in the close. Their options kept vesting and they benefitted from the sale. Porter didn’t have to do it. It was just the mensch thing to do. There was one guy who used to work for OMGPOP who was facing a deadline on whether or not to exercises his options. He couldn’t decide, and Porter didn’t want him to lose out, so he hired him as a contractor to extend his vesting as well. He made money too. Every single employee got something from the deal, even new employees who hadn’t reached their cliff. Porter made sure it happened.

Porter’s human approach to business is likely something that companies like Electronics Arts, recently voted the most evil corporation in America, should try to emulate.

VentureBeat is reporting that Draw Something has been downloaded more than 50 Million times from Apple’s App Store. The game has been out less than two months, a little over 50 days to be exact. This makes Draw Something the fastest-growing game for mobile platforms ever.

Draw Something is the new game for iPhone and Android that challenges players to draw a concept for another player to guess. The makers of the game, OMGPOP, don’t mince words when they call the game, right on their site “THE addictive social drawing game.” That it is, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. With 1 million downloads every day it won’t be long before every smartphone user is drawing pictures for their friends.

OMGPOP was recently sold to app-game powerhouse Zynga. You can tell by this chart that Zynga couldn’t bear someone encroaching on its territory. It seems Zynga made the right decision by paying around $200 million for the development studio. If Zynga can manage to hold onto OMGPOP’s talent and keep them alive, they should be able to further solidify their position as top-dog in the Facebook and mobile gaming markets.

I can’t help but wonder, though, if this is good for us gamers. With Zynga having such a dominant position in their chosen markets, there isn’t much incentive for them to innovate and create new, unseen titles. Not that the most popular games on Facebook and the App Store have been innovative. I think we can all admit these games are just Scrabble, hangman, and Pictionary.

(via VentureBeat)

One might wonder what the point of getting an MBA might be, after the chart shows that on average, those with an MBA only make $100K more than those with a bachelor’s degree over the course of their entire careers. Also, 1 in 5 graduates eventually default on their loans – paying an average of $1,300 per month over the course of ten years.

Interestingly, the study shows that a high school basketball player has a better chance at being drafted in the NBA than an MBA graduate has at becoming a top executive – 64% of CEOs of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies don’t have an MBA. The only U.S. president to ever achieve an MBA was George W. Bush, and successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Richard Branson don’t have the degrees.

The infographic goes on to point out the comparative costs in getting an MBA vs. starting a new business – on average, developing an iPhone app costs around $5K – which is roughly 5% of what an MBA from Harvard would cost a person. It’s not clear if social media game company OMGPOP founder Charles Froman has an MBA – he recently sold his “Draw Something” game to Zynga for reportedly $200 million, after having about $1700 in his checking account the week before.

Created by: MBAOnline.com

OMGPOP, makers of the popular game “Draw Something,” was sold to Zynga for reportedly close to $200 million. Forman was so pleased with the sale that he wandered into traffic – “I walked across the street, and all I heard was ‘honk.’ It was surreal.”

“I had $1,700 in my bank account yesterday, and now I have a whole lot more,” Forman stated, adding that “it’s the kind of money where I’ll be wearing whatever I want when somebody invites me to a wedding.” Forman wasn’t directly involved with the development of “Draw Something,” and left OMGPOP about a year ago, but still had a stake in the company. “The entire company started as a joke, honestly.” Yeah, some joke.

Zynga acquired OMGPOP last Wednesday, and by Thursday all OMGPOP employees had migrated, being briefed on their new company’s policies and benefits.