The age of platform holders holding total control over what games can and cannot launch on their formats could well be coming to a close.

Or, in somewhat less tabloid fashion, the prospect of scores of developers skipping app stores to launch browser based versions of their titles that target multiple formats at once has drawn a step closer to reality.

Zynga's latest release in its Mafia Wars series, Atlantic City, is now available on smartphones, but rather than making its debut exclusively on a mobile marketplace – GetJar the chosen app store - the studio has also chosen to leverage HTML5 and launch it on the web.

As a result, Mafia Wars Atlantic City is playable on any smartphone browsers that support HTML5, - iPhone, iPad, Android, webOS and BlackBerry all on board.

War on the web

Zynga's decision to target HTML 5 is an important benchmark for the social gaming genre.

Having spent 2010 branching out from its browser base to target mobile marketplaces, it now appears that social studios are leaning back towards their original stance – and targeting several platforms all at once, as a result.

It's also a fairly weighty feather in HTML5's cap as the language looks to cement support.

However, while web based games enable developers to bypass any rules and regulations tied to specific marketplaces, Apple's continued block on Flash shows the platform holder will always retains a modicum of control.

[source: VentureBeat]