Zynga ups the ante with Mafia Wars 2

Social games kingpin Zynga has publicised the new sequel to one of its key franchises, Mafia Wars, as part of a wider aim to preserve the buzz surrounding the company.

Global market turmoil has delayed Zynga’s IPO until further notice, leaving the San Franciscan group in a no-man’s land between private and public company.

Zynga’s aim is to maintain interest on Wall Street and, by revealing its upcoming Mafia Wars 2 project, is hoping to convince possible investors that another potential trailblazer is around the corner.

But today, Zynga’s rival company EA is leading growth on the Facebook games platform.

The Sims Social has become the second-biggest game of all time on Facebook, with over fifty million monthly active users. EA is hoping the title will rise up and usurp Cityville’s reign as the most popular social network game of all time.

No release date for Mafia Wars 2 has been set. The first game has ben in steep decline over the last twelve months. It currently has an audience of around 5 million monthly active users, according to AppData.

A million monthly active users have disappeared in the past month alone.

Zynga said the sequel will "bring one of our longest running and most successful franchises to a whole new universe, introducing a vast 3D world where being bad never felt so good."