FarmVille maker Zynga wants to publish the next Facebook hit [Report]

Being the top Facebook game developer just isn't enough for Zynga, apparently. According to a report in Businessweek, the now-public FarmVille creator looks to put its publishing plans into motion as early as March. Aligning with a statement from Zynga CTO Cadir Lee, the developer's upcoming Project Z and Zynga Direct will prove instrumental to the publishing move.

According to Businessweek's nameless sources, the publishing program will allow independent game developers to advertise their offerings in Zynga's games and on a separate web portal. Of course, Zynga will take a cut of said indie games' revenue, as will Facebook, since these indie Facebook games would use both Facebook Connect and Facebook Credits.

However, Zynga's publishing plans all depend on whether talks with potential partners go through as well as the success of internal development of the publishing platform, sources told Businessweek. For Zynga to become a publisher--like, say, how EA made its way into social games--at this point in the game makes sense, as the developer's costs for creating new hits on Facebook will only increase.

That, coupled with the fact that Zynga needs a stream of new games to keep momentum, only makes this move into game publishing more likely for the CityVille maker. However, what's still in the dark is exactly how much control Zynga plans to exert over the games it publishes and how it will choose its games. Something tells us that certain game makers won't be interested.

Are you interested to see what becomes of games published by Zynga? Would you play Zynga's published games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.