Zynga Launches New Version Of CityVille In China

San Francisco-based company Zynga is teaming up with Chinese web company Tencent to launch a Chinese version of its popular online game CityVille. For Zynga, the move could prove vital as it could see it expand its business away from being almost entirely dependent on Facebook for revenue. The new game is being developed at Zynga's Beijing office, set up in May 2010 after the purchase of Chinese game company XPD. It will be called Zynga City. Tencent's Pengyou, a social networking service launched last year that now has more than 100 million users, will initially distribute Zynga City. It had been thought that Zynga and Facebook would march into China together with Zynga City. In fact, the game will later be available on QZone, China's main social game platform, as well as Pengyou. Zynga has already said that Zynga City will be offered in the Chinese language and will feature elements inspired by Chinese pop culture. "Zynga is committed to building a truly local offering in China and the announcement today is a continuation of the company's overall international initiative of creating high-quality games that can be enjoyed across all cultures and languages," said the game developer in a statement.” The issue of Zynga's over-reliance on Facebook for revenue has been well documented and may well have led the company to distance itself from Facebook this time around. "If Facebook loses its market position or otherwise falls out of favor with Internet users, we would need to identify alternative channels for marketing, promoting and distributing our games, which would consume substantial resources and may not be effective," Zynga recently said. The Chinese government is notorious for its strict control over internet use in the country, so it will be interesting to see how they react to oddly-shaped avatars discussing social issues in a fictional city.