FarmVille, Mafia Wars to leave Facebook?
Maker Zynga is very unhappy there.
Zynga, the creator of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, may leave Facebook to create its own social gaming network.
TechCrunch reported that relations between Facebook and Zynga are "intense".
The situation boils down to Zynga being unhappy about Facebook's 30 per cent tax on Facebook Credits, which are the only payment method available on Facebook.
Talks between the two companies apparently "turned for the worst". And when Facebook threatened to turn off FarmVille notification feeds, Zynga threatened to depart from Facebook. This could happen in the "upcoming weeks".
Zynga's solution will be new platform Zynga Live. TechCrunch speculated that players will still be able to log in to FarmVille and Mafia Wars from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but that the game will be operated on Zynga servers by Zynga.
Zynga has refused to comment.
Facebook, on the other hand, offered this blanket statement:
"We have conversations with our large developers all the time and we don't typically comment on specific discussions. But generally, our priority is to ensure a quality experience for Facebook users while fostering an innovative and dynamic environment that offers meaningful opportunities for all developers on Facebook Platform."
FarmVille is a settlement building game that attracts upwards of 70 million people each month. Ellie Gibson picked up her spade recently for Eurogamer to investigate.
