Wild Needle

Wild Needle, Inc. operated as a mobile games developer with a specific focus on creating casual games targeted toward a female audience. The company was established in Mountain View, United States, in 2010 by co-founders Rick Thompson and Heidi Carson. Thompson was also a notable co-founder of Playdom, a social gaming company that was acquired by Disney.

The firm positioned itself as a "mobile-first" studio, aiming to develop the next generation of social mobile games. In late 2010, Wild Needle secured $2.5 million in a Series A funding round from investors including Rick Thompson and Shasta Ventures, eventually raising a total of $5.98M over two rounds. The company's primary product was "Shoptown Hero," a freemium casual game for iOS devices. This game introduced a haggling mechanic, allowing players, as shop owners, to negotiate prices with customers to vary their profits, offering a different experience from typical virtual shopping games.

In May 2012, Zynga acquired Wild Needle for an estimated $3.8 million. The acquisition was widely seen as a talent acquisition rather than a move to obtain the company's intellectual property. This was part of Zynga's broader strategy at the time to bolster its capabilities in the mobile gaming sector by acquiring skilled development teams. Shortly before the acquisition, "Shoptown Hero" was pulled from the App Store, and the game was discontinued. Wild Needle is now considered a deadpooled company.

Keywords: mobile games, casual games, social gaming, female-focused games, iOS games, Shoptown Hero, Rick Thompson, Heidi Carson, Playdom, Zynga acquisition, mobile-first studio, freemium model, virtual shopping game, talent acquisition, Shasta Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Signia Venture Partners, game developer