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Zynga Leverages Today's Android Improvements For Mobile Expansion - Yahoo Finance

Tricia Duryee, On Wednesday February 2, 2011, 2:40 pm EST

Leveraging a recent mobile game studio acquisition, Zynga said today it plans to launch its second game for the Android operating system later this month.

The announcement piggy-backs on a number of improvements Google announced today as part of its Honeycomb mobile operating system version, including in-app purchases and the ability to browse and shop for applications from your computer.

Up until now there wasn’t a ton of motivation for game-makers, like Zynga, to adopt the Android platform because it was so difficult to monetize.

Zynga, which is known for its social games for Facebook, including CityVille and Mafia Wars, gives games away for free and monetizes by selling virtual goods to players.

Until today’s announcements that was very difficult on Android, making Apple’s iOS the preferred platform.

This signals Zynga’s commitment to embracing other platforms going forward.

Already, its Zynga Poker app was on Android, but it is adding “Word With Friends,” a game originally built by Newtoy and has more than 10 million users on Apple iOS. Now both Android and Apple users will be able to play against each other cross-platform.

Zynga says the features will be the same on both platforms, including the ability to play up to 20 simultaneous games at a time, in-game chat and push notifications. It will be released later this month and be free, with an ad-free premium version coming later.

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