Zynga unveils Battlestone, an action RPG coming to iOS soon

Zynga unveils Battlestone, an action RPG coming to iOS soon:

Zynga's been on an interesting pivot lately. The company made a name for itself on Facebook, and most of the developer's business is tied up in big games such as Farmville and its sequel. But that audience is at least slowing down in growth, if not declining, and that's pushed Zynga to try some more interesting experiments, particularly on mobile platforms like iOS. Last year, Zynga published Horn, which is a very impressive action / adventure title on iOS, and this year we'll undoubtedly see more experiments like that one, with Zynga targeting a more "midcore" audience with better graphics and more complex gameplay.
And in fact, here's one of those experiments now. Battlestone is a newly revealed game from the House that Farmville Built, and as you can see above, it looks very impressive. It's an action RPG in the vein of Diablo, but made for mobile platforms, and with a slightly more casual look. Battlestone will let you pull one hero from multiple choices to fight through varied 3D environments, swiping and tapping across the screen to get involved in combat.
It definitely sounds fun -- Battlestone should be available in the US soon, as it's already being tested in a few markets around the world. Zynga's real challenge with these will be to balance this "midcore" gameplay with its usual freemium promotional practices. The company grew very quickly thanks to its "social" gameplay, but as it has grown bigger and bigger, Zynga's depended more and more on desperately trying to make its games viral. If they can tone that down in these more complicated titles in a way that still allows them to keep things profitable, the company will be able to find a whole new audience to replace the one that's getting more and more bored with all of the "cow clicking" that Zynga originally started out with.

Zynga unveils Battlestone, an action RPG coming to iOS soon originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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