The Fight For Facebook: Mickey Mouse Takes On Zynga's Bulldog

Today Playdom, Disney's social games division, announced the release of its next Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance. It will be available in Q1 at the end of March, according to reports from AllThingsD. This comes shortly after news that at the end of 2011, Playdom's hidden-object game Gardens of Time ranked number one on Facebook.

Last week Zynga launched a game that attempts to rival Gardens of Time. It's called Hidden Chronicles and, not surprisingly, it looks and feels a lot like Gardens of Time. The main difference is that Hidden Chronicles does not involve the time-travel element that is essential to Gardens of Time. Will Zynga's next game involve superheroes?

In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, players must assemble and lead a team of heroes to keep New York City "safe from an unknown threat." The combat role playing game includes Marvel superheroes and villains, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and others. After they're added to the team, players unlock the superheroes' abilities and attacks, customize stats and face-off against others. As a Facebook-based social game, of course, the idea is to get your friends to join you on your mission. The game is currently in closed private beta.

Right now, the closest thing that Zynga has to superhero games are Mafia Wars and Mafia Wars 2, which use a similar model as Playdom's Avengers Alliances. Players must collaborate with their friends to kill the villains and expand their empire from New York to the entire world.

For now, Zynga's CityVille, CastleVille and FarmVille hold the spots two, three and four on Facebook, according to AppData. In its post-IPO state, however, Zynga's shares continue to slip. Reports from the Wall Street Journal today confirm that Zynga's shares have hit $7.97, which is 20% below its initial offering price of $10.

With Disney announcing its latest Facebook game release, will Zynga follow suit with a superhero-filled game? Or will its games continue ending in "ville"?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/EtiVtPHqLc0/the_fight_for_facebook_mickey_mouse_takes_on_zynga.php

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