Zynga CEO hints at Xbox support

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus mentioned the the Xbox during recent comments about creating cloud support to play the company's games across multiple devices.

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Social game giant Zynga may be working on bringing their games to Microsoft's Xbox 360. A recent comment from Zygna CEO Mark Pincus mentioned that the company is working to build cloud support for its games across multiple devices, and in doing so name-dropped the Xbox. Twice.

"Right now we are building back-end technology, so that your game state can be saved and served up in difference screens/devices," Pincus told Giga OM (via GamesIndustry.biz). "The interaction cues will take from the different devices. In other words, you can play a game on a computer and call it up on Xbox and you resume from the point you left off, except the game play will now be customized for the Xbox controller."

Given that Zynga hasn't previously announced bringing its games to Xbox, this would seem to be a slip-up. The functionality sounds nice for Zynga fans, though, and could be a dramatic way for Microsoft to introduce its rumored free-to-play initiatives. Last year, Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds called Xbox Live "too small" for some of its games.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Pincus mentions that it's important to keep in mind how to design experiences for different devices. "One of the lessons we learned from the FarmVille for iPhone was that web and iOS are entirely different and have different mechanics," he said. "That is why we did FarmVille Express. The difference is that on mobile it is a 2-minute session versus a 45-minute session on the computer." He says that web content providers who port their games to iPhone are "all trying to figure it out."

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    March 22, 2012 2:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Zynga CEO hints at Xbox support.

    Zynga CEO Mark Pincus mentioned the the Xbox during recent comments about creating cloud support to play the company's games across multiple devices.

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