14 DAY TRIAL // Zynga has made plenty of announcements at its Unleashed event, it had plenty of new games and made its first foray into mobile gaming, but the big strategic move is Project Z which is, in a way, a stand-alone social network tied to Zynga's games. But it's based on Facebook. Stick with up on this one, it makes sense.
"What we’ve found from talking to our players is that they want to play online with friends who love the same games, and they want to connect with others who are playing at that very moment," Zynga explained.
"We call that the promise of instant social, and today we’re taking a big step towards it with the announcement of 'Project Z,' a new social games service from Zynga, enabled by Facebook Connect," it said.
Project Z may be innovative, or strange, for a social gaming company, which already has a social graph at its base, but it makes sense for a gaming platform, which Zynga wants to be, in essence.
It also makes sense for a company that wants a more direct access to its customers. Which is to say, any company out there.
The gist of it is, with Project Z, Zynga is enabling its users to create personal profiles linked to the games. While the identity and authentication part relies on Facebook, Project Z houses your stand-alone gamer profile.
Through it, you'll be able to connect with your game friends and also keep track of your achievements. It will also follow you across any Zynga game you play.
The best way to think about is that it's Xbox Live for Zynga games, where the platform, rather than being a game console, or even Facebook, is actually Zynga.
Again, it's linked to Facebook through Connect, but it is a big step towards a more independent Zynga and a very smart move for the company.
One of the big advantages of using Facebook as a platform is that you can play any game, there's no cost of switching.
But, by locking you into Project Z, Zynga ensures that you'll be less likely to play any other game, even if it’s on Facebook, since you won't have access to your friends list, your profile and so on.
Project Z is not live yet, but you can secure your game id, called zTag, now by visiting Zynga.com. Again, notice that it's directing users to its own site, rather than Facebook.