Zynga expands Cityville franchise to mobile

Zygna has followed up the success of its Facebook game CityVille with CityVille Hometown on iOS, the company's first multilingual release.

The spin-off will be free, and Zynga's first mobile game to be offered in Spanish, German, French and Italian, and will allow players to connect with the Facebook version of Cityville.

"CityVille Hometown enables players to build their community of residents on the go and gives them access to their Facebook friends who play CityVille," read a release accompanying the announcement.

"Friends that play and connect on CityVille Hometown can swap resources and energy and send and receive special limited edition items if they prove to be exemplary citizens."

Cityville on Facebook launched in December 2010 with 100,000 users on its first day, and in January this year reached 84.2 million monthly players, giving it the biggest monthly active user totals of any Facebook application.