Zynga Asserts Independence From Facebook With Project Z

Farmville and Mafia Wars creator Zynga depends heavily on Facebook to make money. They're looking to change that with a new service "Project Z" that lets them connect directly with gamers.

Project Z is a social gaming network that will run through Zynga.com rather than Facebook. Starting today, you can reserve your gamer tag, or zTag, for the service. Games started on Facebook can be continued on Zynga.com or vice versa.

Roughly 230 million Facebook users play Zynga games per month. Zynga's titles are free-to-play, relying on the sale of optional in-game to make money. Though Zynga now offers their games through the App Store and Google+, the vast majority of the company's $1.25 billion in sales have been made through Facebook.

The problem is that relying on Facebook for revenue has its risks. Since July, Facebook has required all developers making sales through their Facebook games to use a virtual currency called Facebook Credits. Facebook now gets a 30% cut of all Facebook Credit sales, cutting into Zynga's profits significantly.

"Any deterioration in our relationship with Facebook would harm our business," said Zynga in a regulatory filing (via Business Week). They mention it's possible Facebook could start to develop its own games or act more favorably to rival developers. Zynga realizes they're at the whims of Facebook policy currently and don't want to be solely dependent on that network anymore.

It remains to be seen how Zynga will attract gamers to Project Z. If someone already has a Facebook account and they can play every Zynga game through that social network, what incentive do they have to make a new account for Project Z? Perhaps we'll find out once the service goes live, which Zynga says will happen "soon."