It looks like we're about to have some good old-fashioned family war on Facebook. (Mark Twain style, yeah!) Zynga has reportedly acquired a domain titled, "familyville.com," according to Fusible. No trademarks, copyrights or patents have been created or signed by Zynga. But it's clear that the company may very well be responding to EA and its upcoming The Sims Social. The veteran games publisher showed a trailer of the new Facebook game at E3 (a creepy one at that). Here is the news straight from the source:
"Some Whois history and recent name server changes on the domain name Familyville.com are what lead me to believe that Zynga is working on its next mega hit," Fusible writes. "In March 2011, ownership of the domain familyville.com changed from its previous owner (Internet Computing) to Rob Holmes – founder & CEO of IPCybercrime, the very same company that acquired the domain cityville.com on behalf of Zynga for $38,225 at Moniker in June 2010."
This could have set Zynga off in pursuit of a worthy competitor--The Sims are kind of a big deal, you know? FamilyVille, if it's anything like Empires & Allies was a response to the strategy genre, will do much of what The Sims Facebook game will do. But from there the game will likely branch off into its own interpretation of what Zynga thinks the sub genre should play like. And with rumors brewing of an EA-PopCap buyout priced at over $1 billion, it's already looking like the summer will be a battlefield for Facebook dominance. We've contacted Zynga for comment. [Via Pocket Gamer]
[Image Credit: Olgivy]
Do you think Zynga will compete directly with EA this summer with a Sims-like Facebook game? Which do you think would come out on top? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Tags: ea, familyville, familyville domain, fusible, fusible-web, pocket gamer, sims facebook, sims social, the sims facebook, the sims social, zynga, zynga familyville
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