Report: Zynga plans new games publishing platform

Zynga plans to unveil a new publishing program promoting game developers within its game titles, which will help the company develop an alternative revenue source in a bid to lessen its dependence on Facebook. 

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported on Sunday that the social games company plans to introduce a new service to allow third-party game developers to advertise their products within Zynga's game titles and on a separate Web portal, according to two unnamed sources. The company will take a portion of the sales generated by these game developers, they added.

However, these sources said the new publishing platform, which is slated for March but could be released later, is "contingent" on talks with partners and internal development.

Zynga told Bloomberg that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation. The two sources also declined to be named because the plan has not been made public.

The social games developer is the biggest games developer on Facebook, but it is looking for new sources of revenue following its inital public offering last December, which raised US$1 billion. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus had announced last October that the company is looking to build its own games-focused social network, called Direct, but there were little details on how third-party developers can come onto the platform.