Facebook Needs to Become More Like Xbox Live, says Zynga

Facebook has seen tremendous success, and there's perhaps no better example of a beneficiary of this social networking boom than games developer Zynga, which has grown by leaps and bounds over the last year. Now, however, Facebook needs to decide just how it's going to evolve as a platform and a business, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said at the Inside Social Apps conference [thanks VentureBeat].

"Facebook is at a crossroads,” Pincus said. “They have to decide whether it's more important to be the web’s social platform, to make their social plumbing pervasive,” he added, referring to more open technologies like Facebook Connect. Pincus believes that Facebook ultimately has a chance to become far more universal than it is today. “They have a more obvious business model around being a portal,” Pincus said. “I hope they find the business model around the plumbing.”

What direction does Pincus think Facebook should head in? Basically, he sees Microsoft's Xbox Live as a perfect example. “Where this ought to go is it should be an open Xbox Live for the Web,” he said. “If we get to this place where there are achievements, a consistent user experience, a way for web publishers and networks and sites to participate, and an easy way for developers to develop amazing game experiences that enhance relationships among people, then I think social gaming can end up being the few real consumer experiences on the web and be a massively large business for all of us.”