Zynga is working on successor Farmville

During the Unleashed press event, which Zynga held Tuesday at its own headquarters in San Francisco, the developer revealed that they are working on Farmville 2. The new edition can be viewed in 3D and the image can be rotated.

The addition of 3D and a rotating camera aren’t the only features of Farmvile 2, chief technology officer Cadir Lee said. The in-game items will also be more detailed. Furthermore, the gameplay has been tinkered with. For example, there will be even more emphasis on manufacturing stuff, with as many raw materials as possible coming from your own farm. “You use the harvest you collect to make things, which you use to make new things, like on a real farm,” says Lee. Items from the original version of Farmville are not interchangeable with those from Farmville 2.

Zynga hopes with Farmville 2 to win back the players it once had. According to market analyst Appdata, the Facebook game was at its peak in March 2010, with 82 million players tending their virtual farms that month. According to Appdata, that number has now fallen to 22 million players. Yet Farmville still accounts for 30 percent of sales, Zynga said a month ago.

Earlier this year, Zynga announced that it wants to distance itself from Facebook and that it would like to place its games in its own portal zynga.com. It is unknown whether Farmville 2 will also be playable via the portal.