Zynga held an industry event called Zynga Unleashed today, at which the social game company outlined its plans to retain its market dominating position by releasing its unified Zynga With Friends network and by unveiling some of the new titles it has in the works.
Zynga With Friends is designed to connect all players on any platform, including Facebook, Zynga.com, Android and Apple’s iOS. To showcase its capabilities the company gave a early look at what will be a social “lobby” area that will bring together zFriends, live Social Stream, chat, and Zynga’s multi-player feature on Zynga.com.
Although an independently operated platform is an important step into its future and away from Zynga’s dependency on Facebook, the stock market response was tepid. Click here for the latest price.
The company also announced that 50 Cubes, Majesco and Portalarium are now developing games for Zynga.com, joining existing partners like Sava Transmedia, Konami, Playdemic, Mob Science, Row Sham Bow and Rebellion. Zynga also confirmed that the first third-party game for Zynga.com will be Rubber Tacos from the Montreal-based social game developer Sava Transmedia.
Aware of the need to beef up its mobile presence, Zynga Mobile joined the presentation to unveil its dedicated partner program. Atari, Crash Lab, Fat Pebble, Phosphor Games Studio and Sava Transmedia are among those that have already signed up to participate.
Naturally, Zynga had fun announcing the new titles in its catalog. One is Matching With Friends, which launched globally on iOS devices today as the fifth game in the “With Friends” franchise. There also were two additions to the “Ville” franchise: The Ville, which Zynga said is its most social “house and people” game yet; and ChefVille, in which players who master virtually preparing a dish get emailed the recipe so they can try the real thing.
Other new titles include Zynga Elite Slots, a social take on the casino genre, and Ruby Blast, an arcade game that launched last week but which will soon be available in multiplayer mode.
“We founded Zynga with a simple premise that we could help people put play back in their lives. We believe that play can become one of the most important ways we make new friends and enhance relationships,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga (pictured). “Today’s Unleashed shows the products and technology that represent the next generation of Zynga. We’ve made some great progress on the Zynga Platform, and our pipeline of new games represents more genres of play that expand our audience, more mobile ways to play and more dimensions of play that will deliver the next generation of fun and social.”
Related links:
Zynga – Zynga With Friends Network press release
Zynga – The Ville press release
Zynga – Matching With Friends press release
Zynga – Ruby Blast press release
New York Times – Zynga’s Plan to Get Its Groove Back: More Games and Social Upgrades
Wall Street Journal – Zynga Plans ‘Zynga With Friends’ Network
TechCrunch – Zynga Launches Cross-Platform “Zynga With Friends,” Multiplayer, New Chat Features, And More Games
GigaOm – Zynga unleashes API, gaming social network
Photo of Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, speaking today at Zynga Unleashed, courtesy of Zynga
