Zynga and Cityville to move from Facebook

An announcement has been made by Zynga, the American company that brought the hit social games Cityville and Farmville to Myspace, Google+ and Facebook, that they are getting ready to set up their own gaming platform service.
This means that in the future people wanting to play the games will no longer have to use the social networking sites and will be able to go direct to the companies own platform.
The proposed move could result in significant effects to the social networking sites and the gaming market generally according to IGN.com games editor Keza Macdonald who said that “If Facebook game powerhouses like Zynga launch their own platforms rather than hosting games exclusively on Facebook itself, it undermines Facebook’s credibility as a gaming platform, which could shift the emphasis on social gaming”.
Presently most of Zynga’s games require people to use Facebook to play them for which the social networking site receives a 30 per cent share of any virtual items that are sold.
The sale of these items plus advertising are the two ways that Zynga makes money from placing the games on Facebook and the other sites.
It is understood that at the moment users will still need their Facebook IDs to log into the new Zynga service and that the social website’s payment system of Facebook Credits will continue to be used to buy virtual goods.