It’s a day late, but social game site (and Zynga-antagonizer) Playdom has finally responded to our request for comment on the lawsuit and temporary restraining order they got hit with earlier this week (all the legal documents are here).
The statement, emailed to us earlier today, is short and sweet and contains very little information at all:
This lawsuit comes as no surprise given Zynga’s penchant for litigation. We do not believe in using unnecessary litigation as a business strategy, and we are troubled to see an industry as bright and promising as ours weighed down by such tactics.
We have no interest in Zynga’s “Playbook” or “secret sauce.” Our strength comes from our 111 talented people, and we will defend ourselves vigorously against this distraction.
The lawsuit stems from seven former-Zynga, now-Playdom employees who may or may not have taken a few proprietary documents with them to their new jobs. Among the documents Playdom is accused of stealing is the fast-becoming-legendary/mythical “Zynga Playbook”: “The Zynga Playbook is literally the recipe book that contains Zynga’s “secret sauce,” and its contents would be invaluable to a competitor like Playdom,” says Zynga in the lawsuit.
Did Playdom steal it? All they say is they have “no interest” in the document. It seems to me that the only way they could know that for sure is if they’ve read it. I mean, if the New York Times had a playbook, I sure would be interested in it. Unless I’d read it and found it uninteresting, that is. So I’ll ask again, Playdom. Did you steal the Zynga Playbook?
And if you did, can I have a copy?
Yes I did Muaha
You lie !!!
Let me save everyone a couple million dollars in litigation. I present *drumroll* Zynga’s PLAYBOOK:
1. Create a game people have played in the past (Mafia Wars, Poker, FarmVille, WordTwist, Scramble, etc).
2. Use 10-15% of revenue on advertising newer games that still have not reached critical mass. If no revenue, use seed money or VC money to run ads.
3. Know when whales (+2,000 friends) add your app and change the UI of your game to make it impossible to use without sharing something to your stream.
3. Abuse Facebook communication channels (mass notify friends on load) just enough to not get penalized. One Facebook figures it out, apologize and wait 3 weeks before doing it again.
4. Repeat #3.
5. Abuse Facebook communication channels on off hours. 12am – 5am PST.
6. ??
7. PROFIT
translation of playdoms response: we forgot laws existed so we will be deadpooled soon
Isn’t that what happens to almost every company that is covered by TechCrunch? It’s not like TechCrunch covers any real companies.
u tool…. techcrunch covers the shit out of APPLE, they have an apple love affiar…
That’s right! I forgot.
What’s the point in posting drivel like this? If you don’t like the blog, don’t read it.
Aren’t there typically non-competes that don’t allow you to work for competitors shortly after leaving a company?
Some lawyer correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought non-competes were notoriously difficult to enforce in CA as it’s seen as a restraint of trade
That is correct (and I’m no lawyer), but a simple google search will yield the answer.
this has nothing to do with non-competes, which are enforceable in California only under very specific circumstances (selling your company in exchange for stock in the new company). Playdom is being accused of straight up theft of intellectual property.
Zynga has no secret sauce, and anyone claiming that is probably under the influence of one delusional midget. Their product is garbage.
Totally understood Michael, and I don’t think OP was suggesting that to be the case but rather how did they even get past the first hurdle of going to a competitor… and as has been noted even if there was a non-compete it would likely be unenforceable and hence not part of any litigation even if it was in the employment contract.
They said they had no interest in the “Playbook” or “secret sauce”, but they said nothing about the “11 herbs and spices”.
How convenient to have left that little bit out.
I suppose there are colonels in the Mafia Wars.
playbook ?, must be why coca cola are doing so well on task ( i forgot coke is not the success it is because of the big marketing budget and presence everywhere).
Seriously , its easy to create a game like zynga or any of those sites have. I just dont have the money to promote it like them
its even easier to say you can create something, with out actually doing it.
Try “It’s”.
Frankly speaking I don’t find this issue a bigger one,
after all both the companies are getting benefited by the coverage technical forums.
If you consider the case of internet marketting and hits on the website. You ‘ll find enormous increase in recent days. That is because the on board discussion going by these companies. It can be calculative risk to acquire the market by even the negative publicity.
But I fear , including the tech crunch the way vivaciously they covering this issue, I doubt on their crenditiablity on this instance.
I aplogize if it is not the issue.
Its better not to talk this lame issue, coz according to my views its well thought marketing stunt.
Regards,
Arpan
Let’s see…if trade secrets are stolen and viewed by competitors, that is a crime. If they are stolen and viewed by competitors on TechCrunch, however, that is not just journalism, it noble! Heroic! I can see why you would want to call these guys out, Mike.
That said, if Zynga actually had a written playbook, which seems absurd, then they had to know at some point it would get out. And play number one in their playbook? “Don’t think up your own games…copy other people’s!”
Rule #2: Spam everybody continuously. This is a secret technique that must not leak!
wow
There is so much drama in the web world.. if only the people were better looking and more interesting.. you could do an office like TV show…but sadly trying to listen to a guy like mark z talk for longer than 5 minutes would be painful…
I heard recently from a friend close to the Facebook app ecosystem that Zynga’s currently suing approximately 17 different companies. Who knows, maybe Playdom did steal info, but there’s no way 17 companies all stole info from Zynga.
It’s no wonder Playdom’s complaining about Zynga using litigation to stifle competition…
Under that assumption, Playdom could be a variant of Zynga with this legal brouhaha to get publicity.
crap, send me a copy too buddy when u get your hands on it!
I always wondered what was in Jules’ briefcase… mmm “secret sauce” — TC always NAILS it w/ movie referenced pictures
Play dumb… Its in the name
I’m waiting for the next TechCruch / Few Good Men mash-up…
If Playdom is really stealing corporate documents, that’s pretty bad. When you look at it from Zynga’s shoes, I would be super pissed, but I’m not sure how you’d get a conviction without a confession or paper trail.
http://www.traderbots.com
Hilarious! This is actually an interesting case. If one of the Playdom employees did steal this playbook then that employee could be in serious trouble. Not sure it can automatically be tied back to the company unless they asked for it, looked at or used it in any way.
This stuff seems to happen all the time — The whole Windows stealing Apple situation…..
May the most shrewd, aggressive, take-no-prisoners company win — oh yeah – and may they have the best product for consumers too……
oh — btw — I love the “sugar daddy dating” ad on your web page.
Nice try Mike, but the having no interest in something doesn’t necessarily imply detailed knowledge about it.
I could have no interest in my competitor’s technology or strategy simply because I’m confident mine is better, for example.
of course. so playdom can now just come out and say “we didn’t steal the playbook,” right?
Do you seriously believe that writing down the set of pathetic techniques used by Zynga constitutes trade secrets? What is secret about spamming people? What is secret about copying other people’s games? What is secret about using the wrong technology for building a game in the first place (durrr, we write it in PHP and put moar nodes in da cluster to scael).
Maybe the problem is that you don’t get technology as much as you think you do, to believe that such a document holds any secret knowledge.
Yeah, only pissy little sites like Facebook use PHP…
Facebook doesn’t build games.
I want a copy too… LOL!
Hillarious..LOL!
Of course, you could interpret this as Zynga makes a really good sauce, and Playdom stole the recipe. After all, it is “literally” a recipe book.
Let me tell you the contents of zynga’s playbook:
“create a copy of every popular app on facebook”
I am a former zynga employee and have never seen nor heard of such a playbook from anyoneduring the entire time I worked there. Claims of its existence are completely ridiculous.
Lame. You forgot to account for the fact that they probably don’t let the janitor sit around reading their important documents all night. Or that they made it after you left/got fired? It’s a playbook, not an employee handbook. Doubtful everyone has access to it or even knows of it judging by how worked up they got that it walked out the door. However, it is nice to know you are an expert on everything you get near. Could you plz fwd all of the gov’t state secrets to me? As a one time citizen of the US surely you have heard of, and have access to, all of that information?
Zynga has many former employees, not because they were fired, but rather because, by reputation, it is not a nice place to work.
This is such a serious issue between two gaming networks.
Nice twist…
…i remind myself what a wise head said to me on a topic close to the heart of this matter…
‘You can steal from me today but you cannot steal what i can create tomorrow’.
i’ll save you all the trouble. the special sauce is thousand island.
Sounds like the games they create – alot of DRAMA! But, if something was stolen then wouldn’t there be an actual crime involving the ability to bring legal theft charges? If they can’t prove that enough to bring real charges of theft then I don’t see where there’s a case? I do see where there is plenty of free publicity though. Since Zyna’s got the money to pay the lawyers – perhaps they threw in a few private eyes to track the “playbook” and will see this one turn up as their newest game once litigation settles.