Zynga’s Project Z: A Facebook-Powered Social Network for Games

Social gaming juggernaut Zynga has announced “Project Z,” a platform for playing social games and chatting with friends powered by Facebook Connect.
Project Z, also known as “Zynga Live” and “Zynga Direct,” lets users start their games on Facebook and bring them to Project Z without interruption, and vice versa. It is essentially a social network designed specifically for games and chatting about games, but one that is powered by Facebook Connect.

One key component of Project Z is that it will utilize a username system called zTags, similar to the system used by Xbox Live. Users can register their names starting Tuesday at ztag.zynga.com.
“It’s a platform for a direct relationship with consumers whether on the web, or on mobile, to give you a whole sandbox and create socialness about the games and not just within the games,” Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said of the service.

By Ben Parr at Mashable