GDC 2012: Partner pool grows for Zynga's Facebook alternative

Zynga's new potential Facebook alternative at Zynga.com is attracting new partners, with three well-known companies announcing support at GDC on Thursday. Konami, Playdemic and Rebellion will all offer games on the service, with the latter offering its first venture into social gaming ever. The company is touting its strong cross-promotional possibilities (giving third-party partners access to its 240 million unique monthly players) is a key driver in attracting parters to Zynga.com. "That's what gets the door open. Nobody is going to say no to a meeting when you start discussing this idea that you're going to have access to that," Rob Dyer tells us. Dyer, formerly of Sony Computer Entertainment, is leading Zynga's third-party efforts. The company is also offering its proprietary analytics -- as Gamasutra previously reported, the company measures a proprietary "active social network" metric that it is offering to its partners.