Virtual Goods News

Fierce social gaming competitors Zynga and Playdom are going head-to-head in a new virtual goods arena this week: prepaid cards. Playdom this week announced (via Crispy Gamer) a deal that would put its cards into Targets, Walgreens, and 7-11s nationwide. On the same day, sources close to Inside Social Games indicated that Zynga would soon partner with InComm to introduce its own prepaid cards into physical retailers.

Playdom's cards will be good for purchase of virtual currency in any of its games, including Mobsters 2 and Sorority Life. The cards will be available in over 150,000 retail locations and sold in $10 and $25 denominations.  Zynga's cards would operate similarly, allowing users to buy virtual currency in games including FarmVille, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, and YoVille. InComm currently distributes prepaid cards for online games and other businesses to over 145,000 retail locations nationwide.

Prepaid cards are an important tool for expanding any online game's audience, since cards make it much easier to convince young and unbanked users to spend on a game's v