Zynga sells web3 game Sugartown to D20 Labs

Mobile publisher Zynga has wiped its hands of its web3 game, Sugartown. Over the weekend, it revealed it sold "all products and assets" of the title to web3 developer D20 Labs.

Zynga first revealed Sugartown last year, joining several studios at the time (like Sega and Square Enix) in adopting web3 and blockchain for games. The developer was the first major mobile studio to make a web3 game, and pitched it as a future leader in "trust, transparency and accessibility" for the genre.

D20 to take over Sugartown

As noted by D20's marketing lead, the studio is made up entirely of Zynga's former web3 team which made Sugartown to begin with. Its leaders, Matt Wolf and Tommy Ngo, respectively served as the department's VP and general manager.

In its statement, D20 explained the hand-off was months in the making, and it intends to continue the old web3 team's plan of "creating the future of rewarded play."

"This is an historical moment," it wrote. "We are excited to explore a world of unlimited possibilities."

It's unclear what spurred Zynga to sell off Sugartown and its web3 department, or if it still has any web3 interest at all. Many studios who previously put their back behind the technology have since cooled on it, though Sega reportedly still has some interest in it.