Zynga, the social gaming company behind massively popular titles like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, doesn't need Facebook anymore — or at least not as much. The company, whose online games have heretofore only been available on Facebook, unveiled a new Zynga.com on Thursday, offering a standalone portal for gamers to access both Zynga titles and those from third-party developers. Zynga currently generates 12 percent of Facebook's revenue (the social network takes a 30 percent cut of every in-game transaction). Will this "revolutionary" step toward independence hurt Facebook's bottom line?
No. It helps both companies: You still have to use your Facebook log-in to play on Zynga.com, says AJ Glasser at Inside Social Games. And users will still be able to play Zynga games on Facebook. This is a win-win. Zynga gets to experiment with new games and features that Facebook can't handle, and Facebook remains deeply integrated with Zynga.
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