The agreement lets Hasbro develop toys and games based on the Zynga brand and will contain joint branding which will enable the wealthy Zynga to “share a common vision for play and a mission to connect the world through games,” ……and make even more money they may have added by exploiting his facebook played games in the off line world.

Zynga games are free to play but the company makes money by selling virtual in-game goods to players and serving up advertising. Zynga rose to global popularity tailoring games for friends to play at leading online social network Facebook and is building its own online community for players.

Zynga bills itself as the world’s largest developer of social games and boasts more than 227 million monthly active users of its titles, which include FarmVille, CityVille, Mafia Wars, and Words With Friends and they have the top five games on facebook of which they give 30% of all related sales to the social media giant – an ever increasing revenue stream for facebook.

Hasbro clearly want a piece of this action as they are so far behind in the in the on line world as to have missed various buses, trains and planes of opportunity to create on line gaming with their brand as dominant player.

The strategic alliance plays off of both Hasbro’s and Zynga’s brand values, on line meets off line with Hasbo needing Zynga on first

view more than Zynga needs Hasbro. However last week’s financial results from Zynga pointed to a slowing down of revenues coming from facebook and with minimal mobile revenues they clearly need to leverage their brand off line as well as online and through mobile to keep up with financial expectations.

Hasbro though are a million miles away from realizing their social media and mobile potential compared to electronic gaming brands like EA Sports. At least they are thinking laterally about how brand partnerships could give them the lift they clearly need while giving Zynga off line credibility and channels in the process

Facebook relies on Zynga and vice versa as this top games on facebook list shows