A screenshot of Zynga City, the Chinese version of Cityville.
Image: Zynga
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Zynga has teamed up with giant Chinese Web company Tencent to launch a version of CityVille for China.
It’s an important move for Zynga, which is almost totally dependent on Facebook for its revenue and users today.
The game will be called Zynga City, and is being developed by the Zynga’s Beijing office, which Zynga set up after buying Chinese game company XPD in May 2010.
Initially, the game will be distributed through Tencent’s Pengyou, a social networking platform that was launched last year and which already has more than 100 million active accounts, according to Tencent’s last earnings report (PDF here). Eventually, it will come to Tencent’s Qzone, which has more than 500 million active accounts.
Zynga City will launch in a few days and is inspired by both inspired “by both traditional and pop culture in China,” says Zynga.
Rumors of the deal were reported in April by Chinese publication NextWeb (translated English version here).
See also: How Zynga Makes Millions Off Its Blockbuster New Game CityVille.
Article source: SAI http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/MJJTSISq4mI/zynga-launches-chinese-version-of-cityville-with-tencent-2011-7