Zynga Plucks FarmVille From MSN Games

Some relationships are just not meant to be. Announced in February, Zynga struck a deal with MSN Games that would allow Microsoft Live Messenger and MSN Network users to play Facebook connect-enabled Farmville. This was the first time Farmville would be available outside of Facebook itself. The reason? To expand the reach of social games. The affair, however, was short lived as Zynga has removed FarmVille from Microsoft's gaming portal according to Inside Social Games. Read more after the jump. Zynga had previously removed FarmVille from the network Tagged, although the reasons for that nor this are clear asides from the lackluster performance of Farmville on MSN's network. Zynga's other deals seem to be going OK, such as its partnership with Yahoo! Hilary Schneider, EVP of Yahoo! Americas was excited to see Zynga bring quality social games to Yahoo! and so was Mark Pincus. "With over 35 million unique users playing our games every single day, social games are fast becoming a leading source of entertainment worldwide surpassing most television shows," said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. "Our partnership with Yahoo! gives millions of new users the ability to connect with friends and families through games." The same reason Zynga connected with Yahoo is the reason they partnered with MSN as Mike Verdu stated in February, 2010. "Social gaming has gone mainstream," said Mike Verdu, senior vice president of games at Zynga. "People love to connect with their friends through our games, which are broadly accessible and have universal themes. Bringing FarmVille to a major site like MSN Games is a great way to expand the reach of social games and is a logical next step in how we deliver them to consumers." MSN's 500 million user base could have somehow been monetized enough to the point that FarmVille could continue on it. In May, Zynga shut down YoVille on Tagged as it opened YoVille.com. Zynga has been strategizing focusing on its web properties for some time now and the move to YoVille is part of that grand plan. According to blog Virtual Worlds News, Zynga's removal of YoVille from Tagged would provide Zynga would critical feedback in seeing how gamers react to such actions. FarmVille's loss of over 20 million users over the past four months is cause for concern and Zynga has been making strides, striking deals with companies like Google and Japanese-based SoftBank to bring games to Japan. As Google develops its competitor to Facebook called Google Me, Zynga will be in a fine position to launch its games on Google's platform because of the companies new relations and continue expansion outside of Facebook.

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Zynga Plucks FarmVille From MSN Games

Azam Khan

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Azam Khan