Zynga announced a host of new games, including a new With Friends title and several new Ville titles, at its Zynga Unleashed event on Tuesday. The company also unveiled "Zynga With Friends," a unified social network that will allow players to build a profile and connect with other players, no matter the platform or device.
"We founded Zynga with the simple premise that people could put play back in their lives," Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said at the start of the event. "We have a lot further to still go to accomplish our mission of connecting the world through games."
Zynga With Friends Social Network
With that in mind, Zynga announced its very own social network: Zynga With Friends. With Zynga With Friends, players can create profiles to show off all of their gaming activity, send messages to friends, see what friends are playing, and meet new people based on gaming interests.
The key feature of this network is that it works across various platforms. It doesn't matter if you're playing a game on your iPhone or on Facebook. Zynga With Friends will connect you with players no matter where they're playing.
But this isn't a social network based from scratch -- Zynga With Friends taps into a user base that already has 290 million people. And according to Reed Shaffner, Zynga's Director of Product, "It's unlike any social network today."
Features attached to the Zynga With Friends network include the currently available zFriends, as well as Social Stream features you'll find on Zynga.com. New features include a Chat feature that allows Group chat, profiles (as mentioned above), and real-time, synchronous multi-player mode for games.
The first game to launch with this multi-player mode is Zynga's web-based Bubble Safari, which several Zynga employees demoed for the crowd.
It's unclear how this new social network will affect Zynga's close ties with Facebook, especially because Zynga With Friends will allow for messaging and chat -- a feature that's important to Facebook's network.
Zynga With Friends will launch in the near future, though an exact date has yet to be announced. It will be available on Zynga.com, Facebook, and mobile devices including iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
Developer Partners for Mobile
Zynga's new social network isn't limited to its own games. The company announced that it will open its doors to game partners to leverage Zynga's community, too. Partners include several smaller, independent game developing companies including Phospher Games, Sava, Crashlab, and Fatpebble.
"Working with Zynga means we can focus on what we do best, and leave the rest to Zynga," Steve Ellis from Crashlab said in a video.
"When it comes to social, Zynga didn't read the book, they wrote the book," Alain Tascan from Sava said.
It's a move that could help solid games that don't have strong marketing or social guns to attract tons of new players, immediately getting access to Zynga's user base. And it helps Zynga's new social network by giving users more games on which to connect.
The biggest partner announcement, however, was Atari. The major game publisher will announce a game for Zynga's network to celebrate its 45th anniversary. Details TBA.
Let's Play All These New Games
No major Zynga announcement is complete without a host of new game titles. And at Zynga Unleashed, the company didn't disappoint, unveiling just under half a dozen mobile and web-based games. Here's the lowdown:
Matching With Friends: The latest in the "With Friends" category, Matching With Friends lets users play against one another in a battle to match the most colored blocks for more points. It looks simple enough, and just furthers Zynga's "With Friends" category, which already includes hits like Words With Friends and Hanging With Friends.
"When you see 'With Friends' attached, you know that you're getting an experience that's super fun and super social and of high quality," Zynga's Chief Mobile Officer David Ko said at the event.
The game is available today on the App Store.
Zynga Elite Slots:
Just like the name of the game sounds, Zynga has released a new slots game under its Zynga Casino category. The new game features various themes, including science fiction, Wild West, vampires, and pets. And of course, social is tied in, with chats and features to interact with friends. The game will be available soon.
Growth of the Villes
Zynga is most associated with its Ville-based titles, especially FarmVille. Now three new titles join the ranks. Don't expect anything radically different -- just more games that will let you interact with friends in virtual worlds.
"Each Ville game we create is build upon the ones that came before," Mark Skaggs, Zynga's SVP of product development, said.
The Ville: The Ville looks very much like The Sims, and is based on users building and decorating their homes. You can also talk to other users, but instead of the gibberish language you hear in The Sims, you're interacting with real-life users' avatars.
You can see people's Facebook Timelines directly in the game, and send messages to users through Zynga With Friends.
Skaggs showed a demo of two character in The Ville snuggling up to each other to watch a movie, and then going to the bedroom for what he called, "Happy Home Run Time." It's a bit creepy, but considering the popularity of the Ville titles, this could be exactly what users want.
The game will be available on Wednesday, June 27.
ChefVille: In a more focused vein, Zynga also showed off ChefVille. It's a world where users have one mission: designing their ideal restaurant and serving the ChefVille world their food.
ChefVille also debuts Zynga's first attempt at a "Game to Table" feature, where the game connects to the real world by emailing users recipes when they've mastered dishes and accomplished certain tasks.
ChefVille is coming "very soon," according to Jonathan Knight, Zynga's GM of ChefVille.
FarmVille 2: Zynga didn't say much about FarmVille 2, except for showing a short clip about the game. Expect a revamped version of FarmVille, with new features and gameplay capabilities in the coming future.
