The FarmVille franchise is really going places. First it was announced that FarmVille 2 is coming to mobile, and now it’s been revealed that a FarmVille show is in the works. Even crazier, Brett Ratner (director of films like Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and the Rush Hour series) is the man in charge of producing it.

Say goodbye to valueless coins and useless piles of Farm Cash: Zynga wants you to play with your real money now. A website for ZyngaPlusCasino has surfaced online, and it looks to be the much-anticipated platform for Zynga’s online gambling service in the U.K. The website currently features a graphic of some familiar Zynga character silhouettes, including the iconic FarmVille cow, along with the enticing heading, “Coming Early 2013.”

Christmas is coming. All the signs are there: The weather is colder, holiday decorations have sprung up in malls like twinkly weeds, coffee shops are pouring gingerbred-flavored everything down our throats, and, perhaps most telling, our favorite digital worlds are getting their annual dusting of snow. One example is Zynga’s FarmVille, which will be opening “Mistletoe Lane” later this month.

Does Zynga ever sleep? Hot off the heels of FarmVille 2's release, the company has gone and announced CityVille 2, the forthcoming sequel to their massively popular city management sim. You've built all sorts of virtual cities by now, sure, but have you ever built one... in 3D?

Liabilities! Bulldog markets! Synergy! Such are the terms we use to describe business, and this post is no different. Zynga has teamed up with Hasbro to create board games based on a handful of their social games, including FarmVille, CityVille, Words With Friends, and Draw Something.

There was a time when toy stores were filled with ridiculous items like shoddy Mario alarm clocks and Sonic bath toys. It may not have been pretty, but it was the golden age of games merchandise. Companies like Rovio and PopCap have tried to carry the torch, providing us with items like plushies based on game characters. But a whole slew of games have missed out on what we consider obvious merchandising opportunities, and we're here to fix that.

It’s no secret that the primary source of income for social games is in-app purchases. As a model, it works just fine. Sometimes, though, other models work better for certain games – like the subscription model, for example. It’s coming to Facebook soon, and developer KIXEYE’s game Backyard Monsters will be one of the first titles to feature it.

Here’s an interesting fact you may not realize: 21 million people are still playing FarmVille every month according to AppData.com. That may be a far cry from the 80+ million that the game had at its peak, but it’s still enough to keep it in the #3 slot for Facebook games. And the two games that are beating it? Zynga’s other cash cows – Zynga Poker and CityVille. So while you might say “really Zynga? ANOTHER FarmVille expansion?!?” – there are 21 million farm hands that probably disagree with you.

Plenty of games companies like to remain secretive about their upcoming games. That’s fine, we get it. Why spread word about a game that’s not quite ready for prime time yet? But when you need to beta test those games, eventually something’s gonna pop up. Like this: a new game that’s allegedly from Zynga that’s testing in the Philippines right now under the name Big Harvest.

While they’ve been king of the Facebook hill for quite some time now, Zynga hasn’t forgotten where their success started. The social farming simulator that could, FarmVille topped more than 80 million monthly active users as its peak, and has seen countless expansions and tie-ins ever since. It should come as little shock, then, that the big Z are looking to repeat their success with FarmVille 2 – at least if the rumors are to be believed.