Zynga to Detail Game Plans for Facebook Apps at “Unleashed” Event
Zynga is planning to unveil “brand-spankin' new play” at a press event tomorrow in San Francisco, where it is now expected to share its plans for leveraging Facebook's new HTML5 mobile platform.
Context & Ripple Effects
Zynga's relationship with Facebook has been openly fraught: back in May 2010 the game maker was reported as gunning up and lawyering up for war with its own distribution channel over terms, before the two reconciled around Facebook's September 2010 gaming event. Tomorrow's "Unleashed" press event in San Francisco is the next beat in that on-and-off dependency.
What changed this week is Facebook's own hand: the company shipped its long-awaited iPad app after previously denying such an app existed despite blogger sightings, announced a major extension of its mobile platform built around HTML5, and confirmed it will extend Facebook Credits to the mobile versions of all Facebook apps — with reporting that Facebook caved to Apple's demands in shaping that platform. Zynga detailing its plans for that stack signals the biggest Facebook app developer is buying into mobile rather than fighting it.
First-order effects
- Zynga gains a sanctioned route to put its games on smartphones through Facebook's HTML5 platform, reaching users outside the desktop canvas where its business was built.
- Facebook Credits extending to mobile apps means Zynga's mobile revenue would flow through Facebook's payment layer, deepening rather than loosening the financial tie the two companies fought over in 2010.
Second-order effects
- Because Facebook shaped its mobile platform under pressure from Apple, Zynga's HTML5 play sits between two gatekeepers — any frictionless-sharing or Credits advantage Facebook grants can be constrained by App Store rules Zynga does not control.
- Rival social game developers now face a choice between adopting Facebook's mobile stack early, where Zynga gets first-mover placement, or holding out and ceding the launch window on the platform where discovery still runs through Facebook.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, social gaming consolidates around platform-operated distribution and payments — the developer's leverage comes from audience ownership, which is exactly what Zynga has lacked outside Facebook since abandoning its independent-platform threats.
- A successful HTML5-first push by the category leader would pressure Apple's walled garden from inside Facebook's ecosystem, making the Apple–Facebook–developer triangle, not any single game release, the durable structure to watch.
The trend: Social gaming is being pulled onto platform-controlled mobile stacks, with Facebook using HTML5 and Credits to extend its take-rate position from the web onto the phone while its largest developer tests how much independence it can still carve out.