Good news for Bitcoin-toting FarmVille players out there–social gaming company Zynga recently announced that it plans to begin accepting the virtual currency as payment in several of its online games.
In an announcement posted to the r/bitcoin subreddit this Saturday, the company said it has begun “testing expanded payment options for players to make in-game purchases using Bitcoin.”
In-game purchases have been a part of Zynga’s games for a while now, with the option to pay using credit cards, PayPal, or Facebook local currency. Zynga says their decision to begin testing Bitcoin comes “in response to Bitcoin’s rise in popularity around the world.”
The gaming company has partnered up with Bitpay, a popular Bitcoin payment processor, for its initial test in seven Zynga.com games. As of now, the test is only available in the web versions of FarmVille 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadows and CityVille.
Following Zynga’s announcement, the price of Bitcoin climbed past $1000. This comes as good news to Bitcoin supporters, after a recent drop in value after China made efforts to limit the currency’s use within the country.
Bitcoin has slowly been making its way into mainstream use over the past few years. While Zynga is not the first gaming company to begin accepting Bitcoins, the sheer size of the company may be enough to have others soon following suit.
