Words With Friends [$1.99 / Free] is headed to Facebook. Social giant Zynga Games announced the platform flip this afternoon with a delightful teaser image. Normally, I’d be a little annoyed by the lack of information, but really, what is there to say? Words with Friends is an extremely simple riff on the Scrabble formula with basic visual do-dads and mechanics that we’ve been enjoying for quite a while on iOS.
I’d imagine the reason we don’t have many details here is tied into the fact that nothing meaningful has been changed, aside from the addition of new Facebook-y social elements.
7-11 will soon offer FarmVille-branded products that will unlock virtual, 7-11-branded items in the popular Facebook game. Two other games from game-maker Zynga will also get tie-ins with the stores: Mafia Wars and YoVille.
Seven thousand 7-11 stores will offer around 30 branded items, including Slurpees and ice cream, among other things. When a customer buys one of the promotional products, he or she will then be directed to perform some special task in the game world to acquire one of the 7-11 items.
This is the first retail partnership of this kind for Zynga, although this deal grew out of a more limited program in which the company sold FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille (Yoville) game cards at 12,800 participating 7-11 stores. Zynga is no stranger to virtual branding promotions, either; it has been selling brand-sponsored FarmVille crops since last month.
The company has been very busy making deals over the past few weeks, actually; it just signed a five-year agreement with Facebook involving the use of Facebook’s proprietary virtual currency, and it is also launching games on MySpace (MySpace), including the new Bangkok expansion for Mafia Wars.
Just a couple of weeks ago, popular Facebook games maker Zynga trademarked the name PetVille, hinting at the theme for their next wildly popular casual game on the social network and other platforms (Myspace, iPhone, etc.). Today, Games.com reports that PetVille has launched.
Zynga is also the maker of FarmVille, which just yesterday was touted by a Facebook (Facebook) spokesperson as being bigger than Twitter in terms of an active userbase. The company followed up on the formula early last month with an aquatic-themed title dubbed FishVille, and now PetVille joins the ranks of of other popular pet simulation games like PlayFish’s Pet Society, which borrow mechanics from popular casual Nintendo titles like Nintendogs and Animal Crossing.
In PetVille, you create and customize your own sugary cute animals, feed and care for them, and earn through gameplay (or buy) the resources to decorate your home, buy better food, give gifts to other players and so on. In the tradition of other Zynga titles and other casual social games on Facebook, MySpace (MySpace) and elsewhere, the game mechanics are relatively simple to learn and the titles are easy to pick up and play for short stretches of time — leading to that addictive quality of reinforcement and reward that characterizes frequent revisitation of your virtual domain.
Check out a demo video of PetVille below and let us know your thoughts. Are you hopelessly drawn to any of these casual titles? It’s okay to admit it: You’re among friends here. Friends who may help you on your FarmVille farm.
