My first thought about this involved Zynga threatening Hasbro, promising that if the two don't form some unholy pact, Zynga would create a game called Cartel involving moving round a digital board buying propertys and building borstels and B&Bs, but it turns out that worry was actually way off the mark.
This deal, announced this week, is for Hasbro to create board games and toys based upon the Zynga brand. Expect Farmville action figures, friends with which to play Words with Friends and towers stolen from innocent bystanders. The press release brags that Zynga has 227 million active monthly users, that's going to be a lot of potential buyers when the first spawn of this deal is released in Autumn this year.
Not quite the standard that has been set by board games this morning, but it's not an unexpected move. Zynga are an absolutely massive company and branching out is a way of confirming that they'll remain massive for a long time to come.
