Zynga Churns Out 3 More 'Ville' Titles

Tired of FarmVille? Never fear: Amid reports of departing users, Zynga is releasing three new potential addictions. The Ville, by the guy who brought you CityVille and FarmVille, is a lot like the Sims doused in Facebook updates. ChefVille offers a restaurant environment, and FarmVille 2 takes the franchise 3-D, USA Today reports. In what the company calls its biggest overhaul yet, it's also diving further into mobile gaming.

As part of the effort, Zynga is teaming up with developers such as Atari as it plans other new games. CEO Mark Pincus says social gaming is at a turning point, much like search engines were in 1999. "Social gaming, on a daily basis, could be as important as email and text messaging," he says. But all is not well in ZyngaVille, says an analyst: The company shed daily active users for two games last month, with Hidden Chronicles dropping 1.8 million such users, leaving 3.3 million, while CityVille lost 1.7 million, sinking to 4.5 million. The company's stock price has fallen about a third since its December IPO. Still, the new game Bubble Safari garnered 5.7 million daily active users in its first four weeks. (More Zynga stories.)