Zynga announces CastleVille Legends, coming soon to mobile

Image via Zynga

Zynga has announced CastleVille Legends, a sequel of sorts to Zynga’s popular Facebook game CastleVille, which launched in the fall of 2011. The Facebook game gives players a chance to build a medieval inspired kingdom, complete with magical creatures, spells and monsters to battle and defeat along the way.

CastleVille Legends is already available on mobile in “select markets,” including on iOS in Canada. The game is a brand new experience for phones and tablets that introduces a brand new kingdom to create, as players rescue characters from the Facebook game from crystal prisons. These characters include Yvette and Raphael, two of the main heroes from the Facebook experience.

The original CastleVille on Facebook skyrocketed to over 38 million monthly active players just weeks after its launch in 2011, but that number has steadily declined since. A few peaks in traffic in September 2012 and January 2013 helped slow the decline, but the game has now fallen to just under 4 million monthly active players, and 473,000 daily active players, according to our app tracking service AppData.

The worldwide release date for Castleville Legends hasn’t been revealed, but interested players with access to a Canadian iTunes account can now download the game for free.

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Zynga announces closure of Zynga Slingo on Facebook

Image via Zynga

Zynga has quietly announced the closure of Zynga Slingo on Facebook, scheduled for later this month. While Zynga Slingo has over 3.5 million monthly active users, this move comes as no surprise, as RealNetworks purchased the Slingo name and brand at the end of July for $15.6 million, according to TechCrunch.

Zynga Slingo players are being offered a one-time compensation package in another Zynga game of their choice: Zynga Poker, FarmVille 2 or Bubble Safari. Players must already have existing accounts in the game of their choosing before the package can be applied. The contents of those packages have yet to be revealed.

Premium purchases (and real money invested) in the slots-meets-bingo game will also disappear when the game closes on August 27, so users are encouraged to use them / it now, while the game is still available.

RealNetworks purchased Slingo as part of its continued push into social casino gaming. The company launched GameHouse Casino Plus on August 1, bringing large-scale, real money sweepstakes to Facebook for the first time. Players of that game have a chance to win $100,000 each and every month, simply by playing the game and earning tickets, and then turning those tickets into contest entries.

While no specific details for new Slingo games have been released, the company did confirm it was working on new versions of Slingo for Facebook, iPhone, iPad and Android.

“Slingo has been a successful, compelling product on every major games platform over the past 15 years,” said Rich Roberts, CEO of Slingo, via a company release. “By joining forces with RealNetworks, we look forward to taking Slingo to the next level. We’re thrilled to be joining RealNetworks’ GameHouse division.”

Sponsored Post Brand new companies and start-ups face innumerable challenges, but one of the most significant ones, according to Rich Gorman, is brand-building. While companies like Apple and Amazon.com have much stored-up goodwill and prestige to use in their favor, a brand new company has no such luxury. As such, it is imperative for start-ups to think critically.
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Zynga reportedly planning to restructure after loss of three c-level executives

Image via Zynga

Zynga is reportedly planning to announce a major restructuring at the corporate level, as sources tell AllThingsD that three of Zynga’s C-level executives are leaving the company. Zynga’s COO David Ko, Chief People Officer Colleen McCreary and Chief Technology Officer Cadier Lee will step down from their positions.

This is a major change, coming just weeks after Don Mattrick stepped in as CEO, replacing founder Mark Pincus, who remains at the company as Chief Product Officer.

In Zynga’s Q2 2013 earnings report, Mattrick confirmed he would conduct a “top to bottom business review” to improve Zynga’s overall product quality. Since then, Zynga has announced the complete closure of OMGPop.com, four of OMGPop’s Facebook games, and the closure of Zynga Slingo on Facebook.

On a positive note, the developer has also released a new match-three Facebook game, Fairy Tale Twist, which looks to capitalize on the growing popularity and success of other match-three titles, including King’s Candy Crush Saga and Farm Heroes Saga.

Zynga’s Facebook games currently have over 131 million cumulative players, according to our app tracking service AppData. That number has been on a steady decline since October 2012, when Zynga’s games claimed over 340 million players.

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Zynga lays off 18 percent of its employees, shuts down 3 offices

Zynga today let go 18 percent of its employees (approximately 520 people) after shutting down its Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City studios. The studios that were shut down was first reported by AllThingsD. A small portion of the 18 percent were let go from Zynga’s Los Angeles office, which saw 55 employees losing their jobs, according to a tweet from an artist at the Los Angeles studio. Empires & Allies, the first game for Facebook from the Los Angeles studio, will be shut down on June 17.The layoffs and cost cuts will be completed by August.

According to a release from Zynga, the move will result in an estimated $70 million to $80 million in pre-tax annualized cash expense savings.

In February, Zynga closed it’s Baltimore studio as well as relocated its Mckinney, Texas and downtown Austin offices to its Dallas and North Austin Offices. The New York City offices saw consolidation as well, with the staff moving to the New York City mobile studio before being completely shut down today. In October 2012, Zynga laid off more than 100 employees, axing employees from its Chicago office, while completely closing down its Boston office.

In Zynga’s last earnings call, CEO Mark Pincus drove the point home that the gaming company was in a transition from web to mobile. As a result, Zynga has sunsetted more than a dozen of its titles in recent months. Zynga’s revenue has been on a decline every single quarter since it’s height in Q2 2012 at $332 million, falling to $264 million in Q1 2013. Zynga also revised its earnings forecast for Q2 2013, estimating a net loss in the range of $28.5 million to $39 million, up from $26.5 million to $36.5 million.

According to Barron‘s, Zynga halted trading of its stock on Nasdaq shortly before the company announced the layoffs. The stock has since resumed and is trading at $3.00 a share, down 12 percent as of 4:29 EST.

Inside Social Games has reached out to Zynga for comment.

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Zynga closes Baltimore studio, consolidates Texas, New York offices

Zynga’s Chief Operating Officer David Ko issued a statement today announcing that the social gaming giant is closing its Baltimore studio.

Zynga is also closing its McKinney, Texas and downtown Austin offices but these teams will relocate to Zynga’s Dallas and North Austin offices.

Zynga’s New York City offices will be consolidated as well, with the staff relocated to the New York City mobile studio.

The total amount of employees that were let go is not clear at this time but Ko’s statement claims that overall the layoffs will affect approximately 1 percent of Zynga’s workforce.

As we’ve recently reported, Brian Reynolds who headed the Baltimore studio, left Zynga in late January.  Reynolds and the Baltimore team worked on games like FrontierVille and CityVille 2.

The closing of the Baltimore team follows Zynga’s recent decision to shut down CityVille 2. As Zynga CFO Mark Vranesh said earlier this month during the company’s earnings call: “CityVille 2 missed our expectations despite pushing the envelope in 3D gaming and both The Friend Game and Party Place failed to achieve the mass market appeal Zynga franchise are known for.”

We last heard of large-scale layoffs at Zynga back in late October, when the company let let more than 100 employees go from its Austin office.

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With CityVille 2 on the way out, so is its studio, Zynga East

Oh, and three other locations across the nation will be consolidated. According to VentureBeat, the FarmVille creator has opted to shut down Zynga East in Baltimore, Md. (responsible for CityVille 2) and consolidate multiple studios housed in three locations . Zynga's enormous workforce will suffer a 1 percent--about 30 people--decrease as a result.

While 30 people are officially out of jobs, which is never good news, the consolidation of the company's New York and Texas studios will not result in large numbers of layoffs in those areas, VentureBeat reports. Specifically, the two New York studios--made up of former Area/Code and OMGPOP employees--are one, the two Austin studios are now a single entity and the McKinney, Texas folks will move into Zynga Dallas.

"While these decisions are always difficult, these steps will affect approximately 1 percent of our workforce and enable us to focus our resources on the most significant growth opportunities," Zynga COO David Ko said to VentureBeat in a statement. Zynga said that it is currently trying to find jobs for the now-displaced Zynga Baltimore employees.

Given the close proximity between these consolidated studios--for instance, the two New York and Austin studios are no more than a mile apart--the impact from these decisions shouldn't be terribly severe. (For those still with jobs, of course.) Regardless, taking these changes into account with the sweeping moves made last year, the only way to go from here is up ... right?

Are you bummed about CityVille 2 going? What do you think these changes mean for Zynga for the rest of 2013? Add Comment.

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EA shut down nearly as many Facebook games as Zynga in 2012

The FarmVille house is far from the only major social game maker going through hard times, you know. EA, the owner of social game studios Playfish and PopCap (to name a few), gave nine of its Facebook games the axe last year. That's just a few less than Zynga opted to let go of in the same time frame. Conveniently, and respectfully, the publisher issues this information publicly for all to see on its website (thanks, AllThingsD).

This fact speaks volumes not only to the state of the rapidly maturing social games industry, but the over games business at large. First of all, this goes to show that, while the barriers to entry are low, creating a successful, lasting Facebook game perhaps requires just as much finesse as crafting a winning console or PC game does. (At the same time requiring far more areas of expertise than the latter.)

Secondly, perhaps Facebook games simply aren't they were all cracked up to be before the bubble burst for Zynga last year. Sure, these games can make a load of money, but that requires way more mastery than taking known brands and slapping them on the platform like companies are so wont to do these days. Simply put, Facebook games aren't the money trees raised with Miracle-Gro that FarmVille made them out to be in 2008.

And last but certainly not least, looking back on 2012 only serves to prove the popular opinion that social gaming is to the 21st century what the Atari age was to the 20th century. Social gaming on the web and mobile is going through the same paces that games did during the crashes of 1977 and 1983, and that trend will likely only continue through 2013, though hopefully on a far less dramatic scale. The end result? Perhaps it will soon be hard to easily define the difference between games on Facebook and those on your next Xbox in 2014.

Do you agree that social gaming is going through a crash similar to games in the late '70s and early '80s? What will get the burgeoning industry out of this rut? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Let the culling continue: Zynga shuts down four more mobile games

by Joe Osborne, Posted Jan 2nd 2013 11:00AM

Just as promised, Zynga said goodbye to a number of its social games before the end of 2012. But according to TechCrunch, four of those previously doomed announced games live on mobile devices before Dec. 30, 2012. The sister site reports that Mafia Wars Shakedown, ForestVille, Zynga Japan's Mojitomo and Word Scramble Challenge were all pulled from app stores.

These four games join the soon-to-be defunct Zynga Japan's Montopia in the void where mobile games no longer exist ... or wherever they go when they're decommissioned. While sad, the news isn't terribly surprising: The majority of mobile games developed first by Zynga have historically performed poorly. And we're sure that games like ForestVille had just as dedicated fan bases as, say, PetVille (which was put on the chopping block on Dec. 30, 2012).

Even after 11 of the 13 games that Zynga promised it will shut down were closed, the company still has over 30 offerings. The reason for these shutterings was to cut costs likely in order to reinvest money and resources in better-performing games and in the creation of new games. No matter how large and infamous their creator, it's never easy to see widely-loved games simply cease to be. One can only hope this results in the creation of better games.

Are you sad to see any of these mobile Zynga games go? Which games will you move on to? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Tags: forestville, forestville closed, mafia wars shakedown, mafia wars shakedown closed, mojitomo, mojitomo shut down, word scramble challenge, word scramble challenge closed, zynga, zynga mobile, zynga mobile games, zynga mobile games closed, zynga mobile games shut down

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Add one more to the list: Zynga Mobile UK GM says goodbye

And the wheels keep on turnin'. GamesIndustry International reports that Matthew Wiggins has left his position of GM of Zynga Mobile in the UK. Breaking the news on his personal blog after a year and a half with the company, Wiggins had nothing but kind words for the FarmVille house that acquired the studio he ran and co-founded, Wonderland Software, in April 2011.

"For me, the Wonderland Software/Zynga UK adventure has come to an end. Earlier this month I awoke to the exciting realisation that, after almost three and a half years, I had left that chapter behind and could look ahead to the future," Wiggins wrote. "It's been quite a ride. I wish all the best for the good and talented people who I leave behind."

Wiggins didn't reveal any plans for the future, but it seems as if he's still bullish on the tech world, based on his language within his departure announcement. The former Zynga UK GM is just another bullet point on a long list of Zynga staffers that have jumped ship in 2012. It seems that, soon enough, Zynga might have to go through yet another major reshuffling to fill the gaps.

Are you surprised that Zynga has lost another GM? Will the company recover from these talent losses? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Zynga brings Toys for Tots through FarmVille, Draw Something and more

It's the season of doing good, and given the FarmVille maker's track record in this area, it's no surprise that Zynga wants to feel all warm and fuzzy with the rest of us. So, the game maker has teamed up with Toys for Tots to help make us all feel good inside while playing its hit social games. Zynga's dubbed this in-game charity campaign "Oh, What Fun!" and it's set to run through Dec. 31 in a slew of games.

Players of CityVille, CastleVille, Words With Friends, FrontierVille, Bubble Safari, Draw Something and FarmVille will all get the chance to donate toward unfortunate kids getting what they want for Christmas. Each of these games will offer holiday-themed items and boosts, themed quests in which 100 percent of all purchases for said goods will go to Toys for Tots.

For example, CityVille will feature a Toy Shop in which players can craft and wrap toys for kiddies, CastleVille will include a Sparkling Tower for decoration, FarmVille will offer players a Cheer-Ewe-Up Horse (a sheep riding a horse) and more. Of course, Zynga staffers will be playing along, too, holding toy drives in their respective U.S. offices.

"Every child deserves the gift of play during the holidays," retired Marine Corps Major and VP of Toys for Tots said in a release. "Partnering with Zynga for our largest digital fundraising initiative to date, it's now easier than ever for people to help children less fortunate this holiday season."

Do you plan on donating to Toys for Tots from within your favorite Zynga game? What do you think of these events? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Zynga celebrates Cyber Monday with these three Facebook game deals

Over the past few years, the Monday after Black Friday has transformed into "Cyber Monday," a day when online retailers offer discounts to customers that are supposed to rival the deals that they might have been able to find in stores. Zynga has participated in this Cyber Monday tradition in the past, and it continues to do so this year, offering deals across a few of its Facebook games.

In Bubble Safari, for instance, players can purchase one of three bundles at a 75% discount. Here's the rundown of what's inside each.

Bronze Package ($5) - 32 Cash, 8,000 coins and 3 Boosts
Silver Package ($7) - 50 Cash, 12,000 coins and 3 Boosts
Gold Package ($10) - 60 Cash, 20,000 coins and 3 Boosts

Meanwhile, in FarmVille, farmers can purchase Farm Cash at a 40% off discount, with three packages being available for the next few hours.

55 Farm Cash - $6 (originally $10)
115 Farm Cash - $12 (originally $20)
310 Farm Cash - $30 (originally $50)

Finally, over in Pioneer Trail, Horseshoes are available for up to 60% off, but only until midnight tonight. Make sure to take advantage of these deals while you can, as Cyber Monday won't be around much longer!

Play Bubble Safari on Zynga.com now >

Play FarmVille on Facebook now >

What do you think of these Cyber Monday deals? Did you find any others in your favorite Facebook games? Did you purchase cash in any of these participating games? Sound off in the comments!

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Zynga spreading some holiday cheer with Toys for Tots

Zynga today announced its new charity drive, “Oh, What Fun!”, which will benefit Toys for Tots.

Oh, What Fun! is a drive that allows players to contribute to the charity, which brings new toys and books to less fortunate children. Players will be able to make in-game purchases within the participating Zynga games with 100 percent of the sale going directly to Toys for Tots. The drive will be rolled out over the next five weeks in seven of Zynga’s more popular titles: CastleVille, Words With Friends, FrontierVille, Bubble Safari, Draw Something and FarmVille. Meanwhile, various Zynga studios throughout the United States will host hosting in-office Toys for Tots toy drives benefit local communities.

Oh, What Fun! is the latest campaign from Zynga’s non-profit arm, Zynga.org, which has raised over $13 million to date through 75 in-game drives. To learn more about the different in-game packages, check out the latest Zynga blog post.

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Zynga promotes several executives as yet another says goodbye

The company behind FarmVille and CityVille has finally responded strategically to the holes in its executive team after several senior-level employees left over the past year. However, yet another exec waves goodbye in the middle of the shake-up: Zynga CFO Dave Wehner has left to pursue a senior finance gig at Facebook (a company he probably knows rather well).

Luckily for Zynga, it already has a response to that departure in chief accounting officer Mark Vranesh, who now is the new Zynga CFO. Three other senior-level staffers have been moved up to executive positions, including chief mobile officer David Ko to COO, EVP of business Barry Cottle to chief revenue officer and VP of games Steven Chiang to president of games.

"These changes come at an important time. We are positioning ourselves for long-term growth and I'm confident that we have the breadth and depth of management talent to deliver on our mission of connecting the world through games," Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus wrote in a memo to his staff. "We are also today reaffirming our 2012 financial outlook that we communicated on October 24, 2012."

Zynga hasn't had the best year since going public nearly a year ago. But perhaps this move, combined with games like FarmVille 2, CityVille 2 and the upcoming Battlestone, is a sign of things turning up for the developer/publisher. We'll get back to you on that in 2013.

Are you still a fan of Zynga's games? What do you think of the company's attempts to flip its misfortune? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Zynga fan appreciation program Z.I.P. comes back for round two

About a year ago, some of Zynga's most dedicated players were chosen at random to become "Z.I.P.s" in Zynga's then new fan appreciation program, rewarding them with "exclusive Zynga goodies" and even early access to some of Zynga's newest games. While that setup sounded great at the time, it never really went anywhere, and the majority of Zynga's gamers were left entirely out in the cold.

Skip forward to the present and we see the Big Z bringing the Z.I.P. program back for another go, but this time, players can voluntarily sign up to be Z.I.P.s, without the need to be invited first. Once you get to the Z.I.P. Program website, you'll be able to connect to your Facebook account and will be given a hub of sorts allowing you to browse the program's features. The more active you are in the Z.I.P. program, the more reward points you'll earn, and your progress will eventually be turned into items like real world Zynga-themed goodies, in-game premium currency or even gift cards to third party online stores.

As a Z.I.P., you'll also gain access to sneak peeks of future games, and will of course be able to provide feedback on the games that you "test" prior to launch. Unfortunately, these rewards apparently sound so great that the service's website is pretty slow, and even bounces back errors as of this writing. Still, it's worth keeping this new and improved Z.I.P. program on your radar so that you can sign up as soon as you can. Good luck!

Click here to sign up to become a Z.I.P. now >

Have you been able to get the rewards site to load, or are you already well on your way to earning points and rewards via Zynga's updated rewards program? Sound off in the comments!

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Zynga reveals revised executive leadership team, promoted from within

Zynga today announced a slew of changes to the company’s executive team, following a number of high-profile departures earlier this year.

Today’s reveal features four high-profile changes to the company’s leadership team:

David Ko is the company’s new Chief Operations Officer. Ko used to be the Chief Mobile Officer of the company, but took on extra duties and was reporting directly to CEO Mark Pincus following John Schappert’s high-profile resignation.Steve Chiang is now President of Games. Chiang was the company’s Executive Vice President of Games but was working with Ko to help manage things after Schappert. Chiang’s duties will now include overseeing all new IP on both web and mobile platforms.Barry Cottle is the new Chief Revenue Officer, replacing Jeff Karp. Cottle joined the company in January from EA and was on the company’s business development team before this.Mark Vranesh is the new Chief Financial Officer and will continue to serve as Chief Accounting Officer. Vranesh has been with Zynga for quite some time, even serving as CFO from 2008 to 2010. He was replaced as CFO by Dave Wehner, who just left Zynga to become Facebook’s VP of Corporate Finance & Business Planning.Zynga also reaffirmed its 2012 financial outlook from it Q3 2012 financial results. At that time, Zynga lowered its 2012 guidance due to the quarter’s performance, dropping its projected bookings to $1 billion to $1.1 billion, down $500 million from the company’s original guidance stated in Q1 2012.

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Zynga games, War Commander, Causes, Chase Community Giving and more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps

Zynga Slingo is No. 1 on our list of top growing Facebook apps by monthly active users this week, adding 7.8 million new players. Zynga games made up four out of the top five apps, and CastleVille came in at No. 18.

Titles on our list gained the most MAU of any apps on the platform, growing from between 400,000 and 7.8 million MAU, based on our AppData tracking service.

Top Gainers This Week

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Thursday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

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Zynga may be looking to core games for growth

Zynga’s corporate development team has been sniffing out developers of web-based hardcore video games, sources tell Inside Social Games.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, two persons from separate companies confirm that Zynga’s acquisitions arm is reaching out to small and mid-sized developers with core games already live on open web and other games platforms. We understand “core” here to mean massively multiplayer online games, strategy or card games similar to Magic: The Gathering and possibly first-person shooters. Core games typically enjoy smaller audiences than Zynga’s casual games titles, but reportedly enjoy higher conversion and volume. The biggest player on Facebook in this space is currently Kixeye, with just over 5 million monthly active users and above 1 million daily active users.

Up to now, Zynga’s business has been firmly casual with a flavoring of i-gaming through its casino franchise games. While still reportedly profitable, it may be that the developer is reaching a point of saturation with audiences on Facebook and mobile. Zynga’s games destination site, Zynga.com, also doesn’t seem to be opening up its games to an off-Facebook audience. Our AppData traffic tracking service reports that the Facebook audience on the website numbers 5.2 million MAU and 1 million DAU and the user ticker on the site has reported DAU much above that.

Branching out to core games (and possibly other genres) could be a shot in the arm to Zynga’s growth. The developer has some experience with core games via Empires & Allies, which introduced turn-based unit combat vaguely similar to the combat system in Digital Chocolate’s Army Attack. It’s not clear how successful the experiment was in terms of increasing bookings; audience-wise, the game maxed out its audience within a month of launch at 52.3 million MAU and 7.7 million DAU.

A Zynga spokesperson says the company does not comment on rumor and speculation. The company’s Q2 earnings report drops tomorrow.

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FarmVille-maker Zynga takes aim at 'dude' games next [Rumor]

by Beau Hindman, Posted Jul 24th 2012 4:15PM

Anonymous sources have reached out to Inside Social Games, indicating that Zynga might be looking to buy a few smaller core gaming developers. What is core gaming? Shooters, action role-players, racing games -- games that generally appeal to males, ages 13 and up. Think Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. While core games do not have the same number of players as social games, Zynga may have reached a saturation point, and the studio is looking for new styles of games to attract new players. Does this mean we might soon see a ShooterVille or a real, persistent version of FarmVille?

All of this talk is based on rumors from anonymous sources, but it isn't hard to imagine Zynga branching out of the social market, at least in more limited ways at first. While Facebook gamers still make up the vast majority of Zynga's customers, is it possible that the game maker is trying to increase the number of visitors to its newly launched Zynga.com? Or is this just a case of a large company trying to learn about different genres from smaller companies that know better? Time will tell.

Zynga may be looking to core games for growth [Inside Social Games] >

Tags: Core, core-gamers, InsideSocialGames, news, social-games, Zynga

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Zynga turns on Facebook cross-promotion for partner game Woodland Heroes

Zynga takes the first step in promoting games published through its partner programs today by adding Row Sham Bow’s Woodland Heroes to the Facebook cross-promotion bar that appears above Zynga games.

Adding a game to the zBar, as Zynga called the tool, seems like a small thing compared to what Zynga wants to accomplish in publishing third party games on Zynga.com. Cross-promotion bars have been thoroughly explored by 6waves, Applifier and Tapjoy (which acquired AppStrip) on both social and mobile — and 6waves has a sizable head start on Facebook games publishing. But Zynga has two features that other cross-promotion networks lack: brand recognition and size (65 million daily active users and 292 million monthly active users on both social and mobile as of Q1 2012). Both of those are key factors driving interest from smaller developers in the Zynga publishing platform.

As detailed on Zynga’s blog today, publishing partner head Rob Dyer says that Zynga intends to drive traffic and test promotions during this early beta phase to see what impact it has on Zynga’s network as a whole — and what impact Zynga’s network will have on an individual game.

“Driving players to try out new social games is one thing, but the trick is making sure they stick around,” Dyer’s post reads. “That’s where some of our upcoming tools to increase social engagement come in.”

The Zynga partner program is still a mystery to outsiders. We do know that the revenue share between publisher and developer is the traditional 30/70 percent split — after Facebook takes its 30 percent cut of Credits transactions. We also know that of the companies Zynga has announced so far — Row Sham Bow, Mob Science, Sava Transmedia, Konami, Rebellion and Playdemic — two have long term experience with the Facebook platform and two do not currently have any Facebook games announced.

Here’s what we don’t know: Will the publishing platform create sustainable games on Facebook and mobile, or will it serve as a hunting ground for Zynga’s next acquisition prospects? We can infer from Dyer’s blog post that Zynga will take a hands-on approach to helping publishing partners refine their games, not unlike what RockYou once did for Playdemic. We’re also reasonably sure Zynga will extend its publishing operations to mobile at some point in the future — but it’s unclear if that will operate through a mobile version of its Zynga.com platform.

Woodland Heroes is Intersouth Partners-backed Row Sham Bow’s first Facebook game. It launched in October 2011 and peaked at 190,000 monthly active users and 20,000 daily active users in that same month, according to our AppData traffic tracking service.

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Zynga to set sail for Pirate Island ... or Rogues & Royals [Rumor]

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 12th 2012 5:50PM

Big time social game maker Zynga looks to be on a tear with new projects. This time, CEGamers has found promotional art and text within one of Zynga's infamous surveys for a game known as either Pirate Island or Rogues & Royals. The survey asks players for their impressions of both names associated with these images, and what they think a game with ether name would play like. Then, however, Zynga provides the following teaser:

Set sail for your own Caribbean paradise in a world of intrigue, pirates, and romance. Your island will become home to a cast of exotic characters who need your help in their quests for adventure, glory, and affairs of the heart. Team up with your friends as Crewmates and uncover the island's many mysteries. The choice is yours: will you build your island into a stately tropical paradise? Or a rough-and-tumble pirates' haven?

Other than that, little to nothing is known about this game that Zynga is testing the waters with. (Perhaps Zynga has learned a thing or two from The Sims Social?) The artwork in the image looks strikingly similar to CastleVille, as CEGamers points out. That said, it's possible that Zynga Dallas is the studio that will handle Pirate Island/Rogues & Royals should it survive these surveys.

Would you play a Zynga game like this, regardless of title? Why would Zynga want to revisit the pirate genre? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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