The maker of Farmville, shedding users by the millions, got a jolt of good news on Tuesday when the game's parent company reached an agreement with Facebook, settling a standoff over the handling of virtual currency transactions.
Specific terms of the five-year pact were not mentioned by Zynga in its news release, but it did say that it "expands the use of Facebook Credits" in Zynga's games. Facebook Credits are an all-in-in one currency system that would override in-house microtransactions for FarmVille, Mafia Wars and other Zynga properties - with Facebook getting a 30 percent cut, of course.
A showdown over currency presented unappealing options to both parties: FarmVille, said to consider building its own games portal and trying to migrate its 244 million monthly active users to it; and Facebook seeing a major driver of traffic and user participation skip town.
The release said Zynga is testing Facebook Credits in "select games" and has plans to expand to more titles in the coming months.