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Zynga launches cross-platform multiplayer network Zynga With Friends

Ties iOS, Android and Facebook together

Zynga launches cross-platform multiplayer network Zynga With Friends
Though news of a follow up to Farmville will dominate the headlines, Zynga also used its Zynga Unleashed splash in San Francisco to unveil a sweep of logistical moves.

Topping the bill is the firm's new social network Zynga With Friends, which will look to link up Zynga players across iOS, Android and Facebook.

The platform will build in a live social stream, chat, and multiplayer to allow players to take each other on head to head.

The next level

The social publisher is also set to launch a new API layer – naturally dubbed Zynga API – that will allow Zynga studios a "more efficient way" of tapping into the firm's game services.

Interestingly, the API will soon be made available to third parties.

"We founded Zynga with a simple premise that we could help people put play back in their lives," said founder and CEO Mark Pincus.

"Today's Unleashed shows the products and technology that represent the next generation of Zynga.

"We've made some great progress on the Zynga Platform, and our pipeline of new games represents more genres of play that expand our audience, more mobile ways to play and more dimensions of play that will deliver the next generation of fun and social."

New partners

Expansion is also on the agenda when it comes to the firm's recently launched Zynga.com platform, with three new partners – 50 Cubes, Majesco and Portalarium - set to launch games on the site.

Specifically on mobile, Zynga's new partner program will also hand mobile devs access to its expertise, with Atari, Crash Lab, Fat Pebble, Phosphor Games Studio, and Sava Transmedia all on board.

Details of what that will entail are sketchy, but so-billed "partner games" will launch on the Zynga With Friends network for mobile this summer.

[source: Zynga]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.