Zynga’s hold slips as Facebook launches mobile games publishing initiative

Facebook is about to propel Zynga’s competitors by providing mobile game publishing services to smaller developers. That will range from giving free advertising to select developers of high-quality games to other promotional support so that more games can reach more users on the giant social network.

It’s going to create a brave new world of competition, but Facebook says it is doing it in the name of creating new paths for the discovery of mobile games and the expansion of its gaming ecosystem. Zynga, which has fallen on hard times lately, was once in lock step with Facebook. But the two companies have unraveled their close-knit partnership. That has freed Zynga to put its games on other networks, including its own Zynga.com, and it allows Facebook to publish its own games. In romance terms, it wasn’t quite a divorce, but they’re free to see other people.