Social network game developer Zynga announced on Tuesday that its latest release, Cityville, already has more than 3 million active daily users.
The Sim City inspired game, which was launched late last week, attracted 290,000 users in its first 24 hours, making it the company's biggest launch ever. FrontierVille held the previous record with 116,000 players signing up on day one.
Cityville is a rather simple game that allows players to build and oversee their own metropolis. Users can also trade items and interact with other players.
David Ko, Zynga's new senior vice president of mobile, told TechCrunch's MG Siegler that the developer now has a subscriber base of 45 million daily users.
Ko, who recently joined Zynga after a 10-year stretch with struggling Yahoo, said that the company is making a move to develop a stronger mobile presence. As of today, the vast majority of Zynga players are utilizing PCs. Ko told Siegler that, inevitably, the company's mobile strategy will involve Facebook, which hosts a number of Zynga's games and is a major reason for its initial success.
"We stand for being social, and the reality is Facebook equals social," he said, "but there are other users looking to access our service through other sites. So we take that into account, and we look for more partnerships in that regard."
Zynga's new SVP also discussed the recent acquisition of Newtoy, a U.S.-based mobile games studio that has been responsible for a number of popular releases, including "Words with Friends" and "Chess with Friends."
Ko said that Zynga will leverage the Newtoy's technology and expertise and will rename the company "Zynga With Friends." However, he did say that Zynga will keep Newtoy's leadership team intact and allow it to continue to develop its own line of products.
Beecher Tuttle is a TechZone360 contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
