Zynga Project Z Announced, Independent Site For Games Galore

This week social gaming giant Zynga has announced its intent to go solo in more ways than one. First, a reminder that Zynga will be offered publicly soon (stock up!), next, a new announcement about Project Z, a new website where the Zynga environment will be hosted. As of now, Zynga is dependent on platforms such as Facebook and apps on mobile operating systems as their main source of gaming users. What Project Z will be is no less than a fully functional independent webpage that includes social networking and the full collection of Zynga games. Should their current hosts be worried?

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Facebook and the rest of the current set of Zynga partners should rest assured that there's nothing to fear, says Zynga in a regulatory filing, "any deterioration in our relationship with Facebook would harm our business." On the other hand, the group has also noted that Facebook limiting access to game developers, modification of terms and services, favorable treatment toward Zynga's rivals, and Facebook building its own games as the biggest threats it has in the near future.

Besides that, there's this Project Z site which Zynga says will reduce their dependence on Facebook. Zynga notes that this site is part of a larger strategy called "Zynga Direct" which aims at "a direct relationship with consumers whether they are on the Web or mobile." Thus spoke Chief Executive Officer of Zynga Mark Pincus today at an event at the group's San Francisco headquarters. At the moment only a few details are known about the upcoming site including that each user will have their own individual "zTag" and that you'll be able to start a game in Facebook, continue that game on Project Z, then continue it again on Facebook, forever!

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Zynga also announced the games "Zynga Bingo," "CastleVille" and "Hidden Chronicles," Castleville being the first social game to include an original orchestral score. Neato!

[via BusinessWeek]

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