Zynga Unleashed: CEO Mark Pincus reveals Zynga Direct platform

Zynga broke big news about where the developer is headed today in San Francisco at its Unleashed news event. First, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus approached the stage and almost immediately said that 10 products will be announced today. The most notable of which is Zynga Direct, "a platform for a direct relationship with consumers," according to Pincus. This is likely what Pincus was referring to when he first uttered the words "dog-connected world."

Zynga later elaborated on what the company CEO called "Zynga Direct" with the announcement of Project Z, an "instant social" platform that is said to be the company's attempt at independence from Facebook. The codenamed project looks to connect players immediately through zTags, usernames for Zynga game players made possible through Facebook Connect.

Starting today, players can connect to Project Z through Facebook and reserve their zTags for when the service goes live officially. After claiming your zTag, you're rewarded with zCoins, implying that this service will integrate with Zynga's RewardVille program somehow.
Project Z
Nothing more was revealed about the service, but we're going to bet Zynga made this move in response to investors' fears that the company might be too reliant on Facebook. The service is still tethered to Facebook, but at least this is a step in that direction, especially ahead of Zynga's imminent initial public offering. In fact, Pincus even said, "We're committed to one vision, one mission that hasn't changed, it won't change. We want to be the biggest macro bet on social gaming."

Did FarmVille kill All My Children and One Life to Live?

It appears that Zynga and its FarmVille franchise have drawn middle-aged mothers' eyes from the TV set to the computer screen. AdWeek reports that ABC's imminent closure of both All My Children and One Life to Live is thanks to Zynga's 259 million fans of games like CityVille and FrontierVille. Both shows have been doomed to enternal rest this coming Sept., while Mark Pincus and crew have experienced record turnouts that blow these lunchtime serial dramas away.

AdWeek cites that between 2007 and 2011, the ratings for these two decades-old programs plummeted in the 25 to 54-year-old demographic. (Does that sound familiar?) All the while, the monthly player base for FarmVille peaked at 80 million in early 2010 and CityVille peaked at over 100 million players later that year. "Women at home used to have these virtual friends, these soap stars," Maria Bailey, author of Mom 3.0, said to AdWeek. "Now their virtual friends have come alive, and they don't need one-way conversations. I grew up on Susan Lucci, but Susan Lucci doesn't talk back to me."

While this is all, of course, speculation, the primary demographics for both soaps and social games do match almost exactly. Is it a coincidence that as Susan Lucci slowly drifted from the minds of mommies in their late 30s, a digital farm was there to fill the void? Possibly, but maybe ABC should have taken a cue from England's ATV.