The obscenely popular FarmVille will soon be teaming up with the obscenely popular iPhone to rake in oodles and oodles of cash.
In case you missed it, earlier today Apple announced the fourth generation version of its wildly successful iPhone – you know, the one that was lost in a bar back in April? Coinciding with Jobs’ reveal of the shiny, gyroscope-tastic iDevice came word from Zynga: FarmVille is being ported to the iPhone platform.
On paper, it sounds like a match made in fiscal heaven. Zynga makes roughly $Bazillion every day, and Apple’s handheld dominance recently pushed it above Microsoft as the most valuable technology company. It’s simple math, right? (Lots of money) * (Lots of money) = (Holy crapola money).
“FarmVille is our most popular game and we’re excited to bring it to the most popular gaming platform in the world,” said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus at the Apple event, though I’m fairly sure that the most popular gaming platform in the world is still the PC, counting Facebook and casual titles. Apple boss Steve Jobs returned the compliment, calling Zynga and its games “a remarkable phenomenon.”
When FarmVille launches on the 19th (a year after the official launch of the original game), the iFarm will be able to sync up with whatever farms you have on the original Facebook version (or wherever else Zynga ports it to), maintaining your friends lists and farm status and all that jazz. It’ll be interesting to see how Zynga manages to keep the game’s social network intact – will the iPhone text all your friends when you need a new cow?
God, I hope not.
