Zynga announces features and expands gaming portfolio

Zynga announces features and expands gaming portfolio

Connecting players from Facebook to Zynga.com on IOS and Android
By Lee Bell
Wed Jun 27 2012

GAMING UPSTART Zynga aims to satisfy its army of social networkers by extending across more genres with its own network, more features and an expanded games portfolio.
Zynga's announcement on Tuesday unveiled a fresh "Zynga With Friends" network and introduced an API layer dubbed Zynga API that will offer an easier way for the firm to offer gaming services and eventually open up to third party developers, though Zynga said the latter will come at a later date.
The Zynga With Friends network is a reference to the company's Scrabble inspired Words With Friends game. The company claimed in a press release that it's a "unified experience" that will "connect all players on any platform from Facebook to IOS and Android to Zynga.com".
It allows Zynga players to access the same tools across its network, rolling out a "social lobby" that will include features and social services such as Zfriends, live Social Stream and chat, as well as a
new multi-player feature on Zynga.com.
Fans of Farmville might be pleased at the new line-up of games to get addicted to, including a food-themed Chefville title, a house-building experience called The Ville, a non-"ville" titled strategy game called Matching with Friends and, of course, Farmville 2.
Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus said the release further supports the firm's philosophy that playing online helps gamers to "make new friends and enhance relationships". How that works while players sit alone in front of computer screens inside their dark rooms frantically obsessing over herds of sheep while their real life friends are at the pub, he didn't say.
"Today's [announcement] shows the products and technology that represent the next generation of Zynga," Pincus said.
"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."

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