Dragão Porto Commenting On Zynga's Plans To Break Away From Facebook

March 12, 2012 - PRLog -- The American company behind social games like FarmVille and CityVille is setting up its own gaming service. Zynga’s games are mostly played on Facebook are letting go of Facebook with plans top set up their on gaming service. Zynga makes its money through advertising and from the sale of virtual items such as tools paid for with real cash. It publishes four of the top five games played on the social networking site. Zynga, whose titles have more than 200 million active monthly users, makes 95% of its money through Facebook. Keza MacDonald, UK games editor at IGN.com commented saying “If Facebook games like Zynga launch their own platforms rather than hosting games exclusively on Facebook itself, it undermines Facebook's credibility as a gaming platform which could shift the emphasis on social gaming” She said “moving away from Facebook could have significant effects down the line.” A source for Dragão Porto said “The decision to break away from facebook could have harsh consequences for Zynga, The reason for this is Facebook is very popular and anyone who has facebook has played the games at one stage or another, This will be one thing Zynga will have to look out for”
The San Francisco-based firm says its re-designed website, which will be launched later this month, will make it easier to play games more quickly with access to live chatting and message board features. Users will still need to log in using their Facebook IDs and sales from virtual goods in games, such as houses, coffee or other items, will be traded using Facebook Credits, the social website's payment system. Our Source from Dragao Porto has said “It appears a lot of decision making has went into the re-design of the website, Zynga clearly know what they are doing and we can only look forward to the growing prospects they have to offer” Five of Zynga's top games will be on the new Zynga.com, including CastleVille, CityVille and Words with Friends. Manuel Bronstein, general manager of Zynga.com, said the new website was not intended to move users away from Facebook but to “help users keep their Facebook profiles separate from their gaming habits”
Zynga's new website will also host games from other companies, including titles by Row Sham Bow and MobScience, which make Facebook games Woodland Heroes and Coffee Bar.  Manuel Bronstein has said “If they want to play on Facebook, if they play on mobile, if they play on the web, I want them to be connected to Zynga and it cannot be constrained to one single destination." Our source for Dragão Porto said “If you take a look around you will see that just about every person has a smartphone, but not  all smartphone’s allow access to Zynga games, so we can see why they would want to set up a website that will allow all smartphones to play their games and for this we implore them as we think the idea is fantastic” The company went public last December, trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange, but it had a disappointing start with its share price falling 5% on its first day of trading but Shares in the company, which was founded in 2007, were up 10% per cent to $14.48 (£9.08) after the news was announced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17231321