If you haven’t lost all your free time to Angry Birds for Android, then get ready to lose all productivity because Zynga is eying making games for Android. That’s right friends, Farmville will soon be coming to your Android phone.
According to a Zynga job listing, the social gaming company is looking for an Android developer. The move comes as Zynga has just released the popular Farmville for the Apple iPhone.
“This candidate will be addressing critical issues on some of our biggest game titles, which have several million users across multiple social networks. You must be able to write coherent, organized code and be comfortable working on a complicated code-base with high levels of abstraction,” the job posting said.
Zynga is absolutely killing it primarily off of the success of its games built on Facebook but the company is trying to diversify its revenue stream and mobile apps will be a key platform moving forward. We already know that Google has invested in Zynga, so it looks like the move is already paying off.
By itself, the news isn’t that crazy but it does indicate that Android is gaining traction and high-profile game developers have to pay attention. EA and ngmoco are both planning to make a big push with Android.
There’s still a few issues for Android to overcome before it can dethrone the Apple iPhone as a gaming platform. First of all, it’s not just the iPhone, as iOS games have a huge potential audience with the iPod touch and iPad. In fact, Apple said the iPod touch was the best-selling mobile gaming device last quarter, outselling mainstays like the Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable.
Apple iOS 4.1 also added Game Center, which offers iPhone games a centralized hub for leader boards and match making. Third parties like OpenFeint will bring a similar product to Android but this type of service may find more success if it is built directly in to the OS.