Ngmoco Buys NBA Legend Maker Lionside Inc.

Gamasutra has confirmed that mobile gaming firm and DeNA subsidiary Ngmoco has purchased Facebook sports game developer Lionside Inc. for an undisclosed sum, following on a report from InsideSocialGames. Lionside is best known for mid-level Facebook hit NBA Legend, which has has seen a one-time high of over a million monthly active users dwindle to just under 300,000 of late, according to statistics from AppData. The San Francisco-based company, headed by former EA developer Doug Scott, secured $1.6 million in venture funding last November. "We are very excited to have Lionside join the Ngmoco and DeNA family," Ngmoco said in a statement to Gamasutra. "They are working on new products for the Mobage social gaming platform, bringing their passion and experience to our continuously expanding first party development capabilities." The move follows on Ngmoco's May acquisition of Star Defense developer Rough Cookie and the July launch of DeNA's Mobage mobile game platform in English speaking regions. DeNA acquired Ngmoco late last year for a reported $403 million, and is projecting to double its revenues and triple its profits during this fiscal year.