Zynga's competitors welcome the IPO with open arms ... right

Come on, these guys have to be just a little jelly, right? (It's kinda' hard not to feel a bit green when a guy can sell a home that he's never lived in for $8 million.) VentureBeat reports that a number of Zynga's rivals have congratulated the 4-year-old company on its initial public offering, which is trading right now for 10 bucks a share. The general consensus? This is good for everyone.

"Zynga's IPO is great for the industry, providing a focal point for many to learn and get more involved in important industry trends," Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins told VentureBeat. "The IPO should also prove to be a catalyst for many future transactions that will help the industry." (Note: Hawkins founded EA in 1982, which Zynga could very well outpace today after four short years.)

Other industry higher-ups not only applaud the FarmVille maker's debut on the Nasdaq, but are confident that it can perform in the long run."Could 30 percent [of Facebook users] play Zynga games over time? Yeah," CrowdStar CEO Peter Relan told us recently. But reading Kabam CEO Kevin Chou's words, makes it crystal clear as to why exactly these folks are psyched.

"It's the most important event in the gaming industry in the last decade, and Zynga didn't even exist five years ago," Chou told VentureBeat. Ah-ha! We get it now. You see, if Zynga does well on the stock market into 2012, it essentially validates what its competitors have been trying to do, too, inspiring more investors--both public and private--to get in on social gaming. In other words, Zynga could make it rain on everybody.

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