Animated TV series Farmville coming soon

If you thoroughly enjoyed tending to your farm on the popular online game, Farmville, you may be interested to know that its makers are bringing it to a bigger screen - with a 30 minute long animated television series. According to latest reports Director Brett Ratner will produce the television series. On this project, he’ll be working with Canadian television production company Six Eleven Media. Ratner will be as executive producer, together with Kirk Schenck, Charles Bishop and Nina Gelb. The report quotes Ratner as saying, “FARMVILLE is one of the most exciting brands out there today and its cross-platform opportunities are endless. I am thrilled to be expanding the brand with existing fans and also engaging a whole new audience.”

Both iterations of the game have been highly popular with the masses. The initial fervour surrounding the game was such, that people would set reminders for themselves to ‘harvest’ their crops, or prod their friends to help them complete the construction of their barn. 

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Coming to a bigger screen

For those not in the know, Farmville by Zynga allowed users to maintain virtual farms, which they would have to tend for regularly. Some of the user activities would include - sowing seeds, harvesting, tending their cattle, constructing shelters for the animals, among other things. It wasn’t long before the game caught on with the audiences. 

Only a couple of days ago we reported about Zynga’s fourth quarter earnings call bringing along a bunch of important developments that would play a huge part in shaping the future of the social gaming company. The quarter showed losses, flat revenue and declining bookings for Zynga, but the company had some success with the online FarmVille series, with the original game hitting $1 billion through in-game revenue.

Zynga’s revenue came in at $311 million with a net loss of $48.6 million in Q4 with. Bookings for the company, which went public in 2011, were down 15 percent from $305.7 million to $261.3 million.

What is actually working for the gaming company, which many say has fallen out of touch with consumers, is the success of the Ville series, more specifically FarmVille and its sequel FarmVille 2. “The biggest highlight of the quarter was seeing our team deliver a successful sequel in FarmVille2, a next generation social game that offers cutting edge 3-D experiences loved by millions of FarmVille fans,” said Founder and CEO Mark Pincus. “In 2013 we’re excited to bring this new class of social games to mobile phones and tablets and build a network that offers an easier, better way for people to play together.”

Pincus also announced that despite the roaring success of FarmVille 2, its predecessor crossed a major milestone by reaching $1 billion in total player bookings. Zynga games, like most other online games, work on in-games sales. You can buy Zynga currency using real money to purchase assorted items within the game, which can be used to enhance your experience. 

Farmville isn’t the only popular social game to be in the process of arriving to bigger screens. In December last year, Rovio, celebrating the third anniversary of Angry Birds announced a movie about the wrathful birds. The company revealed that Despicable Me producer John Cohen has been signed on as Producer for the movie and David Maisel, former Chairman of Marvel Studios and Executive Producer of Iron Man, will be the Executive Producer. The feature film will be coming to theatres in the summer of 2016 and will be produced and financed by Rovio Entertainment. Rovio stated that by following Marvel Studios’ example, which was created by Maisel, Rovio will produce and finance the movie outside the studio system and retain full creative control.