Zynga Unleashed: Mafia Wars 2 busts a cap in Google+ Games

Given the intimate relationship between Zynga and Facebook, could this be considered cheating? During the company's Unleashed news event today in San Francisco, Mafia Wars 2 GM Erik Bethke announced that the game has launched on Google+ Games just a day after hitting Facebook. In addition to already being the first direct sequel to a Zynga game, this is the third Zynga game to be released on Facebook's new nemesis.

The game plays exactly as it does on Facebook ... only without your stable of Facebook friends to back up your turf. A move like this certainly attests to the legitimacy of Google+ as a social game platform, but it still lacks the scale that social gamers enjoy on Facebook. It seems that this dual-release approach could become a trend for Zynga, if only to shut up wary investors that question whether the company can grow beyond Facebook ahead of its initial public offering.

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Just weeks before this, Zynga released its most popular social game, CityVille, to Google+ Games. Now with three games on the competing platform, we can assume Zynga has found a loophole of sorts in its seemingly-exclusive deal with Facebook. Despite even the support of the largest social game creator in the world, we wonder whether Google+ Games can hang. It all boils down to one question: What does Google+ Games have that Facebook doesn't? Alright, aside from a lack of banner ads?

[Source: Zynga (Twitter); Zynga (Blog)]

Would you rather play Mafia Wars 2 on Facebook or on Google+ Games? Do you think the support of major developers like Zynga will help Google's gaming platform take off? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.