Following FarmVille 2, CityVille gets its own major sequel

Newsbrief: While just last week Zynga reported that its Ville-style games are losing steam, the company is far from giving up on the brand. Zynga launched a sequel to the popular FarmVille just last month, and today the company revealed that it's also working on CityVille 2. Like the recently-released FarmVille sequel, CityVille 2 will feature a new, 3D visual style, and promises to offer a number of major improvements over its aging predecessor. CityVille 2 is currently in closed beta, but Zynga did not provide a target launch window for the new game. Despite overall weak performance for its third fiscal quarter, Zynga reported last week that FarmVille 2 has been the company's most successful launch since CastleVille in 2011. It's a bit too early to tell whether the game will be able to sustain that success, but Zynga seems very committed to giving its older franchises a new coat of paint.