Online gaming rivals, Zynga and Hasbro are partnering, in the physical realm, that is.

Hasbro, maker of popular board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly, will be making games and toys based on Zynga’s popular online games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars. However, Zynga will not be making virtual games from Hasbro, as Electronic Arts Inc. currently holds the rights to these, but a person familiar with the matter states that the possibility of furthering their partnership hasn’t been ruled out.

Hasbro is greatly affected by the growing trend of gaming on mobile devices.  Their game and puzzle sales slid 7% in the fourth quarter after a 22% drop the year before.  While Zynga, on the other hand, experiences success with their virtual games.  According to research firm Appdata.com, Zynga’s Words with Friends is more successful with 13 million active monthly users compared with Scrabble online which only has one million.

As for the partnership, others are seeing it as beneficial for Hasbro, since people are always interested in buying physical things based on online games.  Some argue that Zynga’s games will not have the same impact as Rovio’s Angry Birds when it was made into a physical game by Mattel.

“Zynga’s games reach a lot of people, and as Mattel saw with its Angry Birds game, some of the games translate well into the physical world,” said Sean McGowan, an analyst at Needham & Company, said. “Building a farm or a city, for example, could be a good board game.”  He also added that many Zynga game players are adults so the demand for toys may be limited but he countered stating that “the same could have been said of Angry Birds, and that was a big hit.”

HTML5 gets gamed, too

Aside from plans of conquering the gaming in the physical realm, Zynga has already ventured out into the world of HTML5.  They now offer four HTML5-based games: Words With Friends, FarmVille Express, Zynga Poker Mobile Web and CityVille Express.
the point of creating HTML5-based games is to “utilize HTML5 tools such as WebSockets and CSS3 to deliver a seamless gaming experience and create fluid animations without slowing down game-play.”

The biggest problems encountered by developers in HTML5 are the multi-layer audio limitations, responsive design and seamless scrolling.  Aside from gaming, Zynga came up with ways to address the issues to help devlopers with the Zynga Jukebox, Zynga Viewporter, and the Zynga Scroller.

First Earnings Call After IPO

Zynga officially went public last December and on Tuesday next week, they will be having their first earnings call which will include their fourth quarter financial report.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimated Zynga’s revenue last quarter, which ended in December, at $335 million or higher.  After the Hasbro partnership announcement, Zynga’s shares edged higher.