Nine New Games and A New Platform

Online gaming juggernaut announced a slate of nine new games as well as a new gaming network called Zynga Direct (Project Z).

The new games includea sequel to "Mafia Wars" that takes the company to a new level of violence, and a follow-on to "FarmVille" and "CityVille," called "CastleVille," that's set in a more tranquil, medieval fantasy world of dragons and maidens.

Zynga also launched its first "hidden objects" game, called "Hidden Chronicles," in which players have to locate items buried in cluttered scenes depicting the inside of a railroad car or a Paris café. "Hidden Chronicles" will launch "soon" on Facebook, Zynga said.

The company also announced three new mobile games built with HTML 5 for Facebook's new mobile platform, announced Monday. The games are "FarmVille Express," "ZyngaPoker Mobile Web" and "Words with Friends HTML 5."

Another new mobile game, "Dream Zoo," where players collect exotic animals, will launch "soon" in the App Store, followed by the Android Market.

As for the Zynga Direct/Project Z game platform, there are not a lot of details available yet except that it will be a direct-to-consumer platform that, in part, bypasses Facebook. According to a post on the Zynga blog it is "coming to a browser near you very soon" and will be enabled by Facebook Connect.

Zynga chief operating officer John Schappert said that gamers will be able to go directly to the Project Z website to play Zynga games rather than playing them on Facebook.

"You can start a game on Facebook and can continue it on Project Z or vice versa, never losing your progress and continuing wherever you drop off," he said.

-http://news.brothersoft.com