Zynga with Friends platform unveiled alongside third-party API

Zynga has announced several major initiatives for its social games going forward, including its Zynga with Friends community platform for its titles, Zynga API for third-party developers, and a number of new games. On Tuesday morning, the firm said it will allow external developers to tap into its technology through Zynga API. This will enable studios to take advantage of the infrastructure and services Zynga has built up over the years to support its social game empire. It revealed three new partners developing games for the standalone Zynga.com site: 50 Cubes, Majesco, and Portalarium. The trio joins a growing list of third-party developers creating games for the platform like Konami, Mob Science, Rebellion, and Row Sham Bow. The company then unveiled Zynga with Friends (not to be confused with the Zynga with Friends studio, formerly Newtoy), an Xbox Live-style service for the company's games that unifies community/social features across multiple platforms: iOS, Android, Google+, QQ, Zynga.com, and Facebook. Zynga With Friends is designed to serve as a single social lobby for all of the company's titles, with features like a live Social Stream, chat, and a new synchronous multiplayer feature for Zynga.com titles that allows users to challenge each other in head-to-head competitions. As for its smartphone plans, the company has started a Zynga Partners for Mobile program that will begin releasing titles for the Zynga With Friends network this summer. Early partners include Crash Lab, Fat Pebble, Phosphor Games Studio, and Sava Transmedia. Atari is developing a game for the platform that celebrates the 40th anniversary of a particular franchise (likely Pong), too. The social game giant also debuted a number of new titles like Zynga Elite Slots, mobile puzzler Matching With Friends, The Sims-esque social game The Ville, cooking-themed game ChefVille, and FarmVille 2, the last of which is a sequel to one of Zynga's first and biggest hits.