Inside Social Games

Well the Super Bowl is almost upon us, and it looks like social developer Zynga is taking advantage. How, might you ask? Why, with virtual goods, of course. Just like a myriad of developers offered limited time virtual goods for their conclave of titles around Christmas time, Zynga is looking to springboard off of America’s most popular sporting event.

The move first came to our attention in Zynga’s, and Facebook’s, top application FarmVille. Certainly a curious choice for football as far as content goes, but considering the game’s at nearly 75 million monthly active users (MAUs), it makes for a great business one. Regardless, the farming behemoth has offered out 10, limited edition, football-themed virtual goods for its players.

The creativity is certainly there, ranging from a Football Tree, to a Gnome Ref, to even a “Line Quacker (yes, it is a duck with a football helmet). Of these goods, half can be bought using earnable in-game currency, while the others cost the buyable virtual currency, Farm Cash. Currently, the items are only available for six days, so there is a bit of urgency in purchasing them, which will likely coax many players to buy a little extra coin so they can afford them before they are gone. Furthermore, the football themed animals all cost the virtual currency and are just way too cool to pass up.

We should note, however, that Zynga is not using the official logos of NFL teams, rather approximate colors.

It also looks as if the other popular Zynga app, Café World, with its 30 million MAUs, is also offering similarly themed items. The difference here, is that they are not limited to just football, but other sports as well and include football shaped tables, bobble heads, and even big foam fingers. Furthermore, they aren’t noted as “limited” unless you click on a football helmet icon called the “Mystery Crate.”

This particular item costs the virtual currency Café Cash (and grants a random gift), as does some of the new sports items. Curiously, a majority of these goods still only cost the in-game currency (even if it is a bit pricey). Nevertheless, and even if it isn’t officially “big game” themed, it is highly coincidental and will probably receive sale boosts due to the coming event anyways.

On a somewhat separate sporting note, the Winter Olympics are coming as well to Vancouver, Canada on February 12. To that end, we also noticed that one of Zynga’s newer titles, PetVille (roughly 18 million MAUs) is offering a myriad wintery virtual goods within its furniture store under the guise of the “Snow Games.” The list of items includes skis, skates, snowboards, and flags.

Sadly, Zynga has not released any data regarding its seasonal, Christmas, virtual goods from its games. But because the company keeps rolling out new themes, we have to assume the efforts are generating meaningful engagement if not revenue.