More mobile from Zynga: CityVille Hometown

New game for iOS devices to build on success of the only app to ever top FarmVille

Zynga announced Wednesday the launch of CityVille Hometown, a mobile spin on the insanely popular “CityVille” for the Facebook platform. The game will be available for iOS devices via the App Store as early as this week.

As the name suggests, CityVille Hometown is much like its predecessor on Facebook, except tailor-fitted for the iPhone’s small screen. That means, naturally, that instead of building massive metropolitan locales, users will be constructing small towns with less buildings and people to manage.

Though the new game isn’t built on Facebook’s platform, the social component we expect from Zynga is still there. Users can actually send and swap energy, resources and other virtual goods with their friends playing Cityville on Facebook.

Interestingly, Zynga just launched another mobile game about a week ago, Hanging With Friends. And that one followed Empires & Allies (for Facebook) just days before.

CityVille Hometown is also notable for being the first Zynga mobile game offered in French, Italian, German and Spanish. Since CityVille, Zynga has continued this trend of launching in multiple languages at once, a move that solidifies the company as focused on dominating the international social gaming community.

It’s hardly surprising to see Zynga launching a mobile version of the game, considering that CityVille has been the company’s biggest success by far.

It was the first title to surpass FarmVille in popularity, less than a month into its launch, and today remains the number one application on the Facebook platform. Though at its peak it reached around 100 million monthly active users, that number has since dropped to 90.5 million, according to All Facebook.

To get an idea of the game’s popularity, run a search on the App Store for “cityville” and you’ll see about 10 third-party apps pop up--some of them which cost money to download--offering tips, tricks and cheats for the Facebook version of the game.

Soon enough, that same search will come up with another potential Zynga hit.

All these new game launches in such a short period of time is a little bit unusual for Zynga, even factoring in how many studios the company operates worldwide. As rumors of the social gaming company’s imminent IPO bubble under the surface, product launches like these could help prime investor excitement for the big day.