Zynga Expands Game Lineup with New Nokia Deal

Zynga ZNGA and Nokia NOK are teaming up to bring two hit games to a new range of devices. Unveiled on Nokia's official blog this morning, the wireless phone manufacturer announced that Draw Something and Zynga Poker will be coming to the Asha Touch later this year. Zynga, which has acquired more than 300 million monthly active users (MAUs) through the release of Facebook FB games like FarmVille and CityVille, first entered the mobile game space with the debut of several titles for Apple's AAPL iOS platform. Zynga games have since appeared on Google's GOOG mobile operating system, Android, as well as Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft MSFT. In June, Zynga announced several new games, including The Ville, Matching With Friends, Elite Slots, and the company's first real-time multiplayer game, Bubble Safari. Despite the announcements, Zynga shares continued to decline. Traders have taken issue with the company's failing business model and lackluster guidance, the latter of which proved to be significantly lower than investors anticipated. On August 3, Electronic Arts EA sued Zynga over the release of The Ville, alleging that the game borrowed key elements from EA's own Facebook title, The Sims Social. Regardless, consumers have not been deterred from playing The Ville. According to the AppData leaderboard, The Ville is currently the number-one Facebook game with more than 58 million MAUs. The Sims Social comes in at number 20 with 16.5 million MAUs. Despite the success of Zynga's games, investors remain concerned about the company's future. This concern was heightened when Amazon AMZN announced that it was launching a new development studio to design games for social networks. Amazon's first title, Living Classics, is being viewed as a unique-but-flawed hidden object game. At the same time, Zynga's games are typically referred to as flawed clones of other products. Zynga made a few significant hires in 2011, including Mark Turmell, the creator of two hit games -- NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. This year, however, the company has found it difficult to retain its top talent. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ