Social games developer and publisher Zynga today announced the release of its seventh game under the “With Friends” brand, an endless runner titled Running With Friends. The game should be available to download for free from the Apple App Store starting tonight and tomorrow morning.

Set in a cartoon-style re-imagining of Pamplona, Spain, the game puts players into the town’s famous Running of the Bulls Festival. Gameplay is very similar to Temple Run, Vector, Subway Surfers, and other games in the endless runner genre. It’s particular similar to the latter in that the device is oriented vertically, with the camera behind the character, allowing the player to swipe and tap in order to dodge obstacles across three lanes.

While it may be similar to other endless runners, Running With Friends is also adding several new features to the formula to keep it fresh. The social element of games has always been Zynga’s primary concern and Running With Friends is no different, allowing users to do as the title suggests and play with their friends asynchronously. The level for each round of the game is randomly generated, but players who compete with friends will compete over the same randomly generated level. The player who gets the highest score by running farther and collecting more stars, wins.

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Zynga today revealed its newest core game title, Solstice Arena, a multiplayer online battle arena game for mobile devices from the A Bit Lucky team.

A Bit Lucky is the developer behind games like Lucky Train and Lucky Space, which were shut down on Facebook in September 2012 while the studio continued to work on Solstice Arena. When Zynga acquired the studio, also in September 2012, A Bit Lucky’s employees became a part of Zynga San Francisco and continued to work on Solstice Arena, though little was known about the game at the time.

Today we finally learned that Solstice Arena is a MOBA game, a genre that originated with the popular mod Defense of the Ancients (DotA) for Blizzard’s PC and Mac strategy game Warcraft 3.

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The social gaming giant’s nonprofit organization Zynga.org and venture philanthropy firm NewSchools Venture Fund will create an “ed tech” accelerator focused on enhancing the quality and reach of learning games and apps designed to improve education outcomes.

Zynga and NewSchool selected ed tech companies Kidaptive, LocoMotiveLabs, and Motion Math for the program, which will officially start this summer. Edmodo, the world’s largest social learning platform for education, will also join the accelerator as a charter partner. Zynga will provide the companies with work space at its San Francisco headquarters and encourage Zynga employees to volunteer their expertise in game design, testing, analytics, product marketing and distribution. Zynga.org has also agreed to commit $1 million in funding for the accelerator’s first year.

Some of Zynga.org’s previous initiatives allowed players to donate to charitable organizations like Toys for Tots and FATEM by purchasing special in-game items. To date, Zynga.org raised more than $13 million for its non-profit partners.

NewSchools Venture Fund, which is focused on improving public education for low-income children, has invested in many for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Its portfolio of more than 100 organizations includes technology-focused solutions like Engrade, eSpark and GreatSchools.

Social game developer Disrupter Beam, known for its Game of Thrones Ascent title based on the hit HBO TV show, today announced it has joined the Zynga Partners programs.

Game of Thrones Ascent is a city building and management sim adaptation of the TV series of the same name, originally based on George R. R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire.

Game of Thrones Ascent launched on Facebook as an open beta back in February and was recently made available on Kongergate. AppData estimates that the game currently has 295,107 monthly active users, down from its April 26 peak of 397,421 MAU.

The partnership with Zynga is bound to increase the number of players thanks to social gaming giant’s powerful cross-promotion tools. On its recent Q1 2013 earnings call, CEO Mark Pincus revealed that Zynga’s network consists of 253 million MAU across all platforms, 65 million of which are on mobile. The partnership will also bring the game to Zynga.com.

“One thing that I’ve learned in my years of starting and building companies is that gaming companies cannot always be solely responsible for 100 percent of their ‘hits.’” CEO and Founder of Disruptor Beam Jon Radoff said in a statement. “Partnerships are integral to the success of any game company and any game, so we are thrilled to now be working with the amazing team at Zynga to move into the next phase for Game of Thrones Ascent!”

Check in with our weekly posts on the fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU, DAU and top emerging games posts to track the effect of the partnership and see if moves up the charts.

You can also read our full review of Game of Thrones Ascent here.

Yesterday, during Zynga’s Q1 2013 earning call, CEP Mark Pincus announced the launch of Draw Something 2. The game is available to download for free exclusively on the Apple App Store. An Android version is coming soon.

The first Draw Something was a simple draw-and-guess game where players compete against each other to create pictures based on stimulus words. The game won the award for Best Social Network Game at last night’s Game Developer’s Choice Online Awards ceremony. It was the first time Zynga managed to take home a GDC Online Award, even though its games have been nominated for the past two years.

Draw Something 2 introduces a live feed where players can share, ‘like’ or comment on drawings, and follow friends, artists and celebrities. It also adds a collection of new drawing tools like new patterns, textures and colors.

Television personality Ryan Seacrest first revealed the existence of Draw Something 2 in March, when he posted a screenshot from the game to his Twitter account. Seacrest and Draw Something have long been associated with one another, especially following the revelation that Seacrest was producing a Draw Something-themed gameshow for CBS. Former Zynga vice president and Omgpop CEO Dan Porter was quick to confirm Seacret’s claim that the public was checking out some legit Draw Something 2 artwork, responding with the game’s official logo.

Zynga’s acquisition of Omgpop made some serious headlines last year, especially since the deal was reportedly worth somewhere around $200 million. Earlier this month, shortly after the announcement of Draw Something 2, we also learned that Zynga’s New York office general manager Dan Porter and former CEO and founder of OMGPOP had left Zynga.

“Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2,” said Zynga chief operating office David Ko, in a statement. “Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and we’re excited to get it into the hands of our players globally. We thank Dan Porter for his efforts in making the Draw Something franchise a success and wish him well in his future endeavors. We’re proud to see talent like Sean Kelly take a bigger leadership role as the head of our New York studio and lead the team to the global launch of Draw Something 2.”

Sean Kelly, who’s been with the company since 2009, stepped in for Porter as the head of Zynga’s New York studio. Kelly’s official title is the vice president of mobile and general manager of Zynga New York, reporting to Zynga’s senior vice president of mobile Travis Boatman.

Inside Social Games will publish a full review of Draw Something 2 soon.

In Zynga’s Q1 2013 earnings call, CEO Mark Pincus’ opening statement  focused on Zynga’s transition from web to mobile. ”Our next opportunities are clearly on mobile,” he says.

Pincus laid out three key concepts for Zynga now and moving forward. He says Zynga is focused on building games, a network and working on profitability.

On the games front, Zynga’s most recently released mobile game, midcore card battler War of the Fallen, is monetizing 15 times higher compared to Zynga’s “With Friends” franchise, Pincus said.

“We’re following a playbook proven on the web to lead on mobile with a disciplined approach. We’re encouraged by early execution,” Pincus says.

Pincus also announced Draw Something 2, the sequel to Omgpop’s hit Pictionary-like drawing game Draw Something, is launching today. The sequel was first revealed in a Tweet by radio and TV personality Ryan Seacrest back in March.

As for Zynga’s network, which consists of 253 million monthly active users (MAU) across all platforms, Pincus says that the company has 65 million MAU on mobile. To demonstrate the power of Zynga’s mobile network, Pincus says word game What’s the Phrase, the company’s only mobile release in Q1, reached the No. 1 spot on the top free iOS apps charts, two days after the company turned on cross-promotion for the game within its network.

“The best way that we can be competitive in the market and positively move customer acquisition is by investing in our network and by better leveraging our large audience,” says Pincus, in the Q&A portion of today’s earnings call.

Since Zynga already has a strong user base on the web, Pincus says Zynga will continue launching cross-platform games that connect web and mobile users, a strategy that has worked for other companies such as King.

Aside from Zynga’s release of What’s the Phrase in the U.S., the company did launch two real-money gaming titles — Zynga Plus Poker (review) and Zynga Plus Casino (review) — in the U.K. in April. Both games are powered by real-money games operator bwin.party.

Later this quarter, Zynga plans to launch a casual title for mobile called Running With Friends, an endless runner game, which has already soft-launched in Canada, and action role-playing game Battlestone, which we reported on at the end of 2012.

Pangalore announces ZooVale — Social role-playing games developer Pangalore announced ZooVale, a cross-platform HTML5 title featuring animal characters rendered in cartoon-style 2D graphics. The game will allow players to build a village and breed animals to fight an evil witch. The game will be available on desktops and mobile devices via Pangalore’s portal.

Lorne Abony Joins Glu Mobile – Mobile game developer and publisher Glu Mobile announced that Mood Media Corporation’s CEO and Chairman Lorne Abony has joined the company’s board of directors as its chairman of strategy committee. Glu also announced that Matthew Drapkin of Becker Drapkin Partners has stepped down as an Independent Director.

Zynga releases War of the Fallen – The social gaming giant has released its latest card battler game War of the Fallen. It follows Zynga’s previous card game, Ayakashi: Ghost Guild, but is developed specifically with western markets in mind. One way in which the game aims to appeal to new players is by better explaining the underlying rules of the genre that are taken for granted in eastern markets, where card battle and collecting games are more popular. The game also encourages social interaction with Guild Force, a mechanic which boosts the player’s abilities when they connect and play with friends.

TAITO, Square Enix releases Crime Connection — Square Enix subsidiary TAITO announced the release of Crime Connection, a crime-themed city management sim. The game, which will be released worldwide using GREE’s platform, is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Gemini Rue hits iOS — The award winning indie adventure game developed by Wadjet Eye Games Gemini Rue is now available to download from the Apple App Store for a special price of $3.99 (normally $4.99). Developed by Joshua Nuernberger, Gemini Rue is set in a bleak future dominated by the corrupt Boryokudan crime syndicate. Alternating between ex-assassin Azriel Odin and hospital inmate Delta-Six, players must uncover the secrets both protagonists are guarding and uncover their unlikely bond.

Zynga’s latest publishing partner is Elite Beat Agents developer iNis, which is getting ready to launch its new mobile title Eden to Green on Zynga’s network.

The game’s story takes place on a world inhabited by sentient plants who find their planet under siege by a group of alien machines. After devastating the planet, the machines begin to get beaten back by a group of plants focused on restoring nature around the world.

iNis is best known in the U.S. for its rhythm game for the Nintendo DS handheld device, Elite Beat Agents, which released in 2006. The developer has worked on other music games since, and even made a couple of forays to smartphones in partnership with Square Enix, with Demon’s Score and Symphonica. But with Zynga’s powerful cross-promotion tools behind it, Eden to Green is likely to make iNis more visible than it’s been in years.

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Zynga today filed a form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission which reveals that in 2013 the company’s top executives will be compensated with larger bonuses, but that these will be more closely tied to their performance.

Zynga has been hemorrhaging its top executives since late 2012. Most recently, the company lost its New York office general manager Dan Porter, the former CEO and founder of OMGPOP which Zynga acquired for $180 million just over a year ago.The new compensation plan, it seems, is aimed at retaining the current top executives with Zynga for the long haul.

As it’s expressed in the form 8-K: “The Company’s 2013 executive compensation program is designed to focus on two primary objectives: first, retaining and motivating our talented, entrepreneurial executive leadership team; and second, aligning our executive pay structure with company performance-based incentives. We believe that by focusing on both retention and performance, the compensation packages align with our strategy to build value for our stockholders.”

The bonuses include both cash compensation and equity in the company, which are contingent on performance related to growing game franchises for web and mobile, expanding Zynga’s network and “achieving certain adjusted EBITDA levels,” (i.e. earnings).

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Zynga Plus Poker is a new real-money gaming service from the social gaming giant. At present, it is available in the U.K. — its availability in other territories will depend on local laws relating to online gambling. Zynga Plus Poker is one of two real-money gaming services that the company has launched recently — the other being Zynga Plus Casino, which we explored yesterday.

Like Zynga Plus Casino, Zynga Plus Poker is playable both via a dedicated client app that is available for both Windows and Mac machines, and via the Web in a Java-based “Instant Play” pop-up window. There are currently a few issues when attempting to run the Web-based version of Zynga Plus Poker in certain browsers such as Chrome on the Mac, but Safari and Firefox offer a more reliable experience, and Zynga is aware of the problems. Players are pushed very strongly in the direction of the downloadable client from the service’s front page.

As with Zynga Plus Casino, Zynga Plus Poker requires players to sign up for a proprietary account in order to play — though if they already have an account for Zynga Plus Casino, this may be used for Zynga Plus Poker and vice versa. Any balance that the player has in their account can be shared between the two games, though at the time of writing I encountered some issues where all of my real-money balance was regarded as “restricted” and thus it did not appear to be possible to bring it into real-money games. It’s not clear whether this is a problem with the service or if there are some prerequisites that I have not met, and the help function in the app itself does not do a very good job of explaining what a “restricted” balance is or why it is restricted.

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