Farm Cash Goes Global: Zynga Game Cards invade Europe, Turkey

It's not just language that's been a barrier to Zynga's global domination (which as of late it seems to have mastered). International digital farmers need a way to pay, too. This is exactly why the company has announced partnerships with distributors in Europe and Turkey to dole out Zynga Game Cards to the masses, VentureBeat reports.

Euronet Worldwide's epay division will distribute the game cards across 18 European countries. More specifically, European fans looking for an in-game boost can find the cards in 276,000 retail spots and 588,000 kiosks spanning the U.K., France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia, according to VentureBeat. Those who buy a Zynga Game Card from these locations will also score a free in-game gift.

In Turkey, mobile payment provider Mikro Ödeme will offer the prepaid cards for smaller increments of Turkish Lira. However, players can also pay through their mobile phones through services TurkCell and Turk Telekom. This is far from the first place Zynga has expanded its game cards. Most recently, Zynga Game Cards entered the Middle East and North Africa through Gate2Play, touched India through MOL and into Latin America through Mentez.

The FarmVille creator's quest to be the number one games company in the world takes more than just localization through language support, but allowing international players to pay up, too. According to VentureBeat, Zynga already has 12 games in 50 countries--only 146 countries to go.

First China and now India: Zynga sets its sights on the Indian social market

Back in February of 2010, Zynga opened its first international office in Bangalore, India. However, major news from the new studio was fairly silent in the overall scheme of things. With the recent release of Chinese FarmVille, however, it seems that Zynga has renewed, and in fact strengthened their international efforts. The most recent news comes just this week, as we learn that Zynga plans to market heavily to the Indian social gaming market by offering new in-game payment methods, in addition to the standards like credit cards or PayPal.

For our friends playing in India, sometime in the first half of this year, Zynga is planning on launching localized Game Cards, internet banking options, or even a system of SMS payments through mobile phones. This will, of course, give Indian players a chance to add the same level of customization to their farms as those in the States and other countries can, as they will be more easily able to purchase Farm Cash to do that in-game shopping.

As reported by the Next Web, Country Manager of Zynga India Shan Kadavil sees "opportunity in India," as its economy is currently the second-fastest growing in the entire world. Prepaid cards are already familiar to citizens via the mobile phone market, so it makes sense that Game Cards for Zynga's games would take off equally well.

We'll be sure to let you know more information about Zynga's advancement into world domination as it becomes available.

Zynga has launched a new cross-promotional event in FarmVille this evening, teaming the game up with video game retailer GameStop to offer "exclusive mystery goods" to users that purchase and redeem Zynga Game Cards from GameStop. That is, in addition to simply earning the appropriate amount of Farm Cash based on the card value you redeemed (whether that be $10, $25 or $50), you'll also receive a free gift.

So far, it looks like you'll receive one of four items all wrapped up in a red and white box. All of these items are themed for Halloween, with three being re-releases. Specifically, there's a Wizard Gnome and Spooky Bush from last year's Halloween theme, while a Plant Monster from both Halloween 2009 and 2010 is also available. In terms of new goodies, you have a chance to earn the Candy Corn Chicken, although the loading screen above doesn't detail whether or not we'll be able to choose our prize, or if we'll just need to get lucky. For someone that already has the three previously released items, that's definitely something to keep in mind. On the other hand, there's also the slight possibility that a single card will guarantee you all four items, but again, that wasn't detailed either.

We'll be able to learn more about this promotion by visiting GameStop's website, but as of this writing, the promotion link doesn't work (it instead redirects to GameStop's downloads page). We'll make sure to keep checking on things and will let you know when the link goes live, along with exactly what you'll find there (hopefully answers to our questions). Either way, we do know one thing: this promotion will end November 6.

Will you purchase a Zynga Game Card for a chance at these Halloween-themed items in FarmVille? Sound off in the comments.