Saturday, October 30, 2010

Zynga Moves FarmVille From Facebook to iPhone to iPad


FarmVille

FarmVille, the real-time farming simulation game, is coming to the iPad. Think watching grass grow is a bore? Think again. The blockbuster Facebook app has engrossed more than 60 million fans around the globe and has become a popular iPhone app too. The move to the iPad marks a first for developer Zynga, which will earn estimated revenues of more than $500 million this year.

What's significant isn't so much the release of FarmVille for iPad owners, but the rapid expansion of Zynga to new platforms. In a space once dominated by mammoth corporations such as Activision and EA, Zynga's massive success demonstrates that indie houses are becoming the most robust players in the app market. Only last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lauded Zynga for its efforts as an "underdog" fighting established gaming companies.

What's more, Zynga illustrates the potential of cross-platform development. The company's apps are simple--basic graphics and gameplay that takes advantage of social media--but the scalability is endless. FarmVille started as a Facebook app before heading to the iPhone and now iPad. We should expect Zynga's full roster to join it soon--Mafia Wars, anyone?--and eventually make to Android and other platforms.

In the past, games took forever to port, with users having to wait months before popular games headed to the Xbox or PS3 or PC. In the app world, however, scale is not an issue of time.

All right, now I must get back to tending my crops. On the iPad.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

FarmVille Creator Zynga Worth More than Electronic Arts According to Valuation

According to SharesPost Inc., which handles trades for shares of privately held companies, FarmVille creator Zynga has been valued at an estimated $5.51 billion. This tops Electronic Arts' $5.22 billion valuation as calculated by its NASDAQ stock price (via Bloomberg).

Keep in mind that Zynga is not a publicly traded company and this valuation is based upon what people are spending for shares or stake in the company. This is similar to when Microsoft dropped $240 million into Facebook for a 1.6 percent stake in the social network, valuing Facebook at $15 billion.

Zynga might not actually be worth $5.51 billion, but at least some people think it is and when dealing with that stock market, that's usually enough. "The valuation is not that crazy, given what's going on in the market," said Atul Bagga, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC. "It's not that terribly expensive seeing the growth prospects." Bagga "estimates the virtual goods market may reach $3.6 billion in three years," according to Bloomberg.

Activision Blizzard is currently sitting at $13.9 billion valuation, while China's Tencent Holdings Ltd. comes in at a whopping $43 billion. FarmVille's success continues to mystify me. It's no Cow Clicker, though.

Monday, October 25, 2010

FarmVille's Fall Foliage covers your land in autumn leaves

Zynga has quietly released a new farm upgrade in FarmVille to celebrate the changing of the season. While all of us are familiar with the Halloween and Autumn themed decorations that have been released over the past few weeks, did you know that a new land type is also now available?

The new upgrade is called "Fall Foliage" and it is available to purchase from the Upgrade Farm tab of the marketplace for 1,000 coins. Once purchased, your land will turn to an orange/brown color, and yellow and orange leaves (they appear to be Maple leaves) will be scattered randomly on the ground.

As of right now, there doesn't appear to be a time limit for how long this upgrade will be available to purchase, so feel free to switch back and forth between your favorite land designs as you please.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Farmville creator Zynga faces privacy breach lawsuit

The maker of the immensely popular "Farmville" Facebook game is facing charges that it shared private information with advertisers.

Facebook game and application maker Zynga.com is being accused of violating federal law by sending indentifying information to advertisers and Internet tracking companies, according to the The Wall Street Journal blog.

Nancy Walther Graf, a resident of California, filed a lawsuit against Zynga, alleging that the game maker divulged personally identifiable information to third parties "for substantial profit." Graf insists that Zynga had violated federal as well as state laws.

"These third parties like Zynga, if they’re going to get access to personally identifiable information in order to make these applications
more useful to Facebook users, they’re going to have to be trusted with that information," said Graf's lawyer, Atty. Kassra Nassiri.

However, Zynga denied the accusations.

"We believe that the complaint is without merit and we intend to defend against it vigorously," the company told the Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement.

The lawsuit follows in the wake of similar allegations against Facebook itself, which is also currently embroiled in privacy concerns. - GMANews.TV

New Fall Foliage background available in FarmVille

FarmVille players who are enjoying the Fall and Halloween themes in the game can take their decorating one step further by purchasing the new Fall Background for their farms.

The Fall Foliage background is available in the FarmVille Market under the Upgrade Farm tab. Players can purchase it for 1,000 Farm Coins. The color is a bright change for your farm, with a deep orange background.

If you decide you want to change the look of your farm after purchasing it, you can always choose one of the other available backgrounds. Currently you can purchase any of the following for 1,000 Farm Coins each, and you can change them as often as you'd like:

  • * Tuscan Green
  • * Fall Foliage
  • * Desert Plains
  • * Beach
  • * Snow Blanket
  • * Green Pastures

Which background are you using on your farm? See the Fall Foliage landscaping in action in the photo above, then let us know what you think of it.

FarmVille Autumn Collection: Collect them all before they're gone forever


I hope you completed the Toy Collection in FarmVille while you had the chance, as a new Lightning Collection has taken over. This one is called the Autumn Collection, and just like its two predecessors (the Toy and Gemstone Collections), this set comes with six different items that must be collected en masse before receiving your prize.

Find out how to get these six new items after the jump.
The six items in the Autumn Collection are the Acorn, Maple Leaf, Pumpkin, Cornucopia, Feather, and Moon Token. Each item comes with its own rarity, along with a specific requirement for how many must be collected to earn your prize. The list is as follows:

  • Acorn (common) - 10 needed
  • Maple Leaf (common) - 10 needed
  • Pumpkin (common) - 10 needed
  • Cornucopia (uncommon) - 7 needed
  • Feather (uncommon) - 7 needed
  • Moon Token (rare) - 3 needed

As usual, you can purchase a single unit of each item for 1 Farm Cash each, for a grand total of 47 Farm Cash.

These items are found by planting seeds on your land, and can be found either individually, or in "stashes" that can be posted to your wall in order to share some extras with friends, so keep an eye out for posts from your friends' offering these goodies!

Is Farmville Just a Game, or Big Brother in Disguise?

When it comes to online games like Farmville, are we the players - or the ones being played?

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal revealed a privacy lapse in Facebook that allowed third party app companies - notably Farmville-creator Zynga - to access private user information and then re-distribute it to advertisers and tracking companies. Up to 218 million Zynga users might have been affected by this privacy issue.

That Facebook would be involved in another privacy scandal is no great shock to me. What is surprising is how mixed the public reaction was to this news. Alongside the angry and upset comments - made in the many online debates that popped up on Monday - were almost as many "so whats" by citizens, technology bloggers, influencers and even journalists.

At the eight-year mark for social media, and over two decades of the Internet, have we, as a society, grown used to the idea that there is no longer any such thing as personal privacy? Have we become desensitized to the risks, because we already voluntarily share private details about our lives on a daily basis online?

The most disturbing element to "Farmville-gate" for me, as an individual and an Internet law attorney, is that these privacy violations were (allegedly) being made by products that already made money from their users. Not that I am rationalizing the past privacy violations of companies like Facebook and Google (e.g., Beacon, "Like" buttons, Buzz, Street View), but it is less surprising when "freeware" is later found to have been accessing users' information for financial gain - because the profitability is not really there. But it's more egregious for applications that already have a legitimate financial component in place. After all, Zynga is reported to have 2010 revenues of $600 million. And its game apps like Farmville are designed to make money by selling virtual goods. Therefore, this (alleged) sideline business of distributing user information is an even greater violation of trust.

It also raises a disturbing question: Is the purpose of online games like Farmville and Mafia Wars to be "games" - profitable, money-making games? Or is the game element only the first layer (necessary in order to gain wide acceptance with the public) while the real goal is to disseminate monitoring applications that, like sleeper cells, wait to be activated?

We may be getting 'used' to the idea of the invasion of our privacy - but that doesn't excuse it. Consumers have a legal right to be informed - before the fact - that their personal information may be monitored, recorded or distributed. And some form of permission request must be required - whether it is by direct consent, in which the consumer must deliberately check a box or click a button; or by indirect consent, where they are informed that by becoming a part of a community, service or platform they are also agreeing to the terms and conditions of that community, which includes information gathering and distribution.

Farmville-gate also raises questions about who is ultimately responsible for our security - the social network, like Facebook, or each individual user? For some time now, there have been questions about the vetting procedure for third party applications that run on a closed operating system or online platform - like Apple's iOS mobile platform, Google's Android mobile platform, or, in the current case, Facebook. In the world of mobile apps, recent studies have found a high percentage of third party apps were found to be harvesting user data. (In October, pskl.us reported that 68-percent of tested iPhone apps harvested unique IDs. Lookout reported in August that over 80 wallpaper apps in Android Market harvested personal information.)

Who bears the blame?

Within the privacy community, there are efforts underway to improve protections for consumers and prevent the widespread adoption of these privacy exploitation practices. Ideas like the current effort by Consumer Watchdog's InsideGoogle.com to create a national "Do Not Track Me List" are well-intentioned, but would be difficult to implement, due to technological and legal issues.

So what's Joe Schmo to do in this brave new Web 2.0 world?

Be vigilant. Research social networks, mobile operating systems, third-party apps and online venues before you join them. If you find you are a victim, take action. Consumers can do this by filing formal complaints with the government's consumer affairs bureaus at the federal and local levels; contacting advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org); writing formal complaints to the service provider; making other users aware of the risks; or joining lawsuits already in process to make sure the guilty party pays a fair amount for the damage it has caused.

Farmville Fans Get New FaceBook Credits Card

What’s the difference between a credit card and a “credits” card? Simple: the former lets its holder make purchases in the real world; the latter gives consumers the power to buy virtual goods, such as food for that Farmville piggie; play Texas Hold Em; or participate in other Facebook-based game apps.

Starting this week, FarmVille sheep herders and MafiaWars moguls alike can purchase new premium Facebook Credits cards in $15, $25, and $50 increments in Target stores and at Target.com. The $25 and $50 Facebook Credits gift cards are also available at Best Buy and GameStop.

The Facebook Credits card is the result of a five-year alliance with social game company, Zynga, maker of popular games like Farmville, Frontierville, Mafia Wars, and Texas Hold Em Poker. With this new step, Facebook Credits will be the only payment method for most Zynga games on Facebook. This isn’t the first move Facebook has made in the direction of turning cash into Credits: a few months ago the social network signed a deal with MOL Global, a company that offers virtual Credits through terminals at stores in Asia and Australasia.

For Facebook, the Zynga alliance is an obvious move; the social networking platform already receives an estimated third of its income via game Credits purchases. A large percentage of Facebook’s most dedicated gamers belong to a demographic too young to carry their own plastic, so the availability of the new Facebook Credits gift cards will provide a welcome new form of purchasing power that doesn’t involve raiding Dad’s wallet.

For parents weary of being blackmailed to spend money by the Farmville cute factor, the new Credits cards may seem like less of a great deal. In an economic climate where many families have seen foreclosures on their houses, the thought of spending money to purchase a virtual Farmville house may seem absurd. On the other hand, some parents may find that there are advantages to being able to set aside a finite cash amount for their little FarmVille farmer to tend her sheeps. At least it prevents parents’ nightmare scenarios, like that of the 12-year-old boy who a few months back managed to get a hold of mom’s credit card and charge a whopping $1,400 in Farmville purchases before mom found out.

While Facebook Credits may be expensive fake money, they appear to give access to some very real experiences for the 200 million Facebook users who regularly play the platform’s games—whether it be through Farmville’s elite “Unwither Ring” or via purchasing that high-price friend via Friends for Sale. And irrespective of how parents may feel about the new Credits card, one thing is for sure: come Holiday time, it certainly makes picking out a gift for little Jimmy a lot easier.

FarmVille Halloween Sees Re-Release Of Old Favorites, Plus New Goodies

The biggest day in October is quickly approaching, and with that we see Zynga adding even more new items to the game's marketplace, in the form of new animals, buildings and quite a few new decorations. Among these new items are a few items that long-time players will remember from last year's Halloween celebration.

Hit the jump for the full look at all of the new items, along with our returning favorites.
This newest set of items in FarmVille plays on a very old cliche, by offering us a pig that could probably fly, a lovely little cottage made from a pumpkin, and even a ghostly gnome that floats above the ground.


For those farmers that were with the game during last year's Halloween event, you'll likely notice the return of the Haunted House, the Tomb Stone and the Spooky Tree. Remember, the Tomb Stone isn't just a decorative piece of rock - it comes complete with an animated ghost cow that rises above the item every few seconds, much as the newly released Ghost Sheep tombstone contains an animation of a ghost sheep rising from the ground.

Remember, these items will only be available in FarmVille until Halloween. While we've been lucky this year, seeing many of last year's items being re-released for new players (or those that simply chose not to purchase them last year), who knows if we'll be so lucky in 2011.

FarmVille Sprouts Up on iPad

FarmVille has finally arrived for the iPad. Well, technically you could play FarmVille on the iPad before, but now it's a universal app with upgraded high-res visuals for the tablet screen – a perfect solution for folks that are tiring of Facebook but want to still keep tabs on their farms. And if you have never gotten into FarmVille yet, you can start up a new farm from this app to see what all the hubbub is about… although you still need a Facebook account to get things going.


The iPad version of FarmVille uses taps and swipe gestures to interact with your farm and view your vast agricultural empire. Like the Facebook version, you can play for free, but there are a number of ways to spend real world money to accelerate success at your virtual farm. The iOS version of FarmVille even has unique items not found in the Facebook original.