About ten days ago FarmVille was quietly pulled from MSN Games, as reported by Inside Social Games.
In a partnership between Zynga and MSN dating back to February, FarmVille was made available to play via MSN Games. The idea was that having FarmVille accessible through other portals besides FaceBook, would drive hits for both MSN and increase exposure for Zynga. It is unsure how successful this partnership was and whether or not it was worth it for Zynga’s investment.
So why did Zynga leave? While Zynga has failed to make an official statement concerning the end of farming on MSN, it is no secret that Zynga recently entered into a partnership with MSN competitor Google, who has invested millions in the social gaming company. Could this partnership have something to do with it? According to Inside Social Gaming, ” Zynga didn’t find the traffic MSN produced meaningful enough to continue running FarmVille on the Microsoft platform”.
As access portals other than FaceBook seem to be of particular interest to social gaming companies like Zynga, “Zynga’s departure suggests the traffic other social developers are hoping to find off of Facebook may be more difficult to find than expected”. Despite FarmVille’s “lackluster performance” on MSN, Zynga continues to seek other avenues of social expansion, including investments in mobile apps, like FarmVille for iPhone as well as seeking access for its games in international markets such as Japan and China. With investments like Google’s in Zynga, rumored to be of up to $200 million, the future of Zynga games in the US market seems to be more than hopeful especially with the launch of the much anticipated Google Games. For now, the big question remains unanswered. . . do social gaming companies like Zynga need FaceBook or does FaceBook need them?
What do you think? What does the future of Zynga’s games like FarmVille outside the realm of FaceBook?
In recent days, many FarmVille Freaks have been reporting missing HoneyBees.
Please see the FarmVille notice above, and take note that if you do not tend to your Beehive each day, some of your Bees will “fly away” or be stolen by the Zynga gods.
Although diligent farmers login everyday to tend to their farms, do you think this is another way to encourage the lazy farmers to return more frequently?
Japan’s wireless carrier company, Softbank, has invested 150 million in a business arrangement with Zynga, the developers of FarmVille.
The investment will serve as a base for Zynga to develop and provide social games in Japan. Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son, has visions of working together with Zynga and creating a “social game powerhouse” he said ,”Zynga is a leader in social games and I am delighted to partner with them to introduce their social games to Japan…We share the same vision as Zynga.”
Mark Pincus, Zynga CEO and founder said of the new partnership, “We’re excited to partner with Softbank to bring Zynga’s social games to Japan and gain insights from the Japanese market… As one of the most innovative technology companies in the world, Softbank is bringing the mobile Internet to consumers making the social Web more accessible to people everywhere.”
Tonight’s FarmVille update that included the release of the Bee Hive feature caused quite a problem for many farmers.
After placing the Bee Hive on the farm, most farmers experienced crashing and accessibility issues.
Zynga address the technical issue and suggests the following:
“Looking into a Placed Beehive Causes Screen to Lock
Description:
Clicking “Look Inside” from the menu on a placed beehive causes the screen to lock.
Status:
The cause of this issue has been identified to be browser related. If you clear your cache and reload FarmVille, you will no longer be impacted.
Workaround:
Clear your browser cache.
If you find your issue in this section, please refrain from creating additional threads unless otherwise specified in the description of the Bugs listed above.” (Source: FarmVille Official Forum)
If you do not know how to clear your internet cache or are unsure, you can consult the following helpful “How to Clear Cache” page.
With the release of the FarmVille Bee Hives and Bees, lots of FarmVille Freaks are reporting problems in FarmVille!
So far, we have numerous reports of FarmVille “freezing up” or crashing after your Bee Hive is placed on your farm. Others are reporting that they cannot accept any of the Bee Hive Building supplies or are losing supplies in the process of acceptance or usage.
As with all new releases, there will be potential glitches that will need to be addressed. Stay tuned for more information regarding tonight’s update and technical issues.
FarmVille Bees are Here Loading Screen
Are you experiencing errors with the Bee Hive feature or with FarmVille tonight? If so, what is happening?
According to TechCrunch, Google secretly invested more than 100 million dollars in Zynga. There is a larger partnership in the works that may secure Zynga as a prominent fixture with the release of Google Games.
A partnership with Google and Zynga would mean that Google Games would provide another alternative route to access Zynga games including FarmVille, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars and other popular titles. Google Games would allow you to log into Google Games and gain access to play your favorite Zynga game. Google Games is expected to launch later this year.
Not only will Google provide another method for accessing FarmVille, it will also give Google the perk of players using Google Checkout instead of PayPal. Farm Cash and other Zynga virtual currency must be purchased with credit card or PayPal. Some sources such as TechCrunch say that Zynga is one of PayPal’s best customers, “Zynga is supposedly PayPal’s biggest single customer”. It is likely that we will see Google Checkout offered as another payment option, especially through the Google Games platform.
Zynga continues to gain massive monetary profit, so it is not surprising that huge companies such as MSN, Yahoo! and now Google become interested and seek partnerships. While Zynga benefits from the exposure and increase in accessibility that Google and Yahoo provide, their partners are able to secure a piece of the social network pie that is largely controlled by social network giant, FaceBook. A partnership with Zynga means that you have tapped into the market of the most popular social game developer and the millions of people that play their games. As TechCrunch explained, “For whatever reason people love to play these games and get passionately addicted to them, coming back day after day. That’s helped Facebook become what it is today. Google, Yahoo and others want some of that magic to rub off on them, too.”
After feeling left out and forgotten with the recent FarmVille iPhone collaboration that birthed exclusive virtual FarmVille items (see Snow Leopard) for iPhone’s FarmVille application users, Android supporters finally have something to be happy about. FarmVille may be “coming soon” to Android!
Lots of naysayers said it couldn’t be done with iPhone, Android, or any smart phone for that matter, yet the FarmVille application for iPhone was successfully released at the end of June.
So could FarmVille be coming soon to Android? Possibly! The URL www.farmvilleandroid.com was just recently registered by DNStination, which is the same registrant as FarmVille.com. As of yet there has been no official release made by Zynga or FarmVille, but this could be a good indicator of a future FarmVille and Android partnership. Worst case scenario, securing the FarmVilleAndroid.com domain name demonstrates FarmVille’s interest in Android, even if it is just a placeholder for now.
It seems like a wise decision as there are many farmers who are non-iPhone users who would also love to have other options to satisfy their farming needs.
Would you like to see FarmVille available for Android?
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