It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas on Facebook. Credit card company Discover has partnered with Zynga to launch the first-ever brand-sponsored FarmVille expansion, Winter Wonderland. The new, customizable holiday farm is the third expansion to be released by the popular social games developer following English Countryside and Lighthouse Cove.

Starting December 2, gamers can get an early start on a quest to help a friendly orange Yeti use his Discover card to do his holiday shopping. Beginning tomorrow, players can get an exclusive three-day sneak peek of the new Winter Wonderland holiday destination by visiting Discover’s farm within the game. Once in Farmville, players can click on the Discover icon located in their neighbor bar to get an exclusive sneak peek of Winter Wonderland, before it is widely available to all players.

Additionally, when Winter Wonderland becomes available to the public on December 5, players will be rewarded with a free virtual gift from Discover just for visiting Zynga’s latest creation. Through December 14, FarmVille players can earn up to three Discover-branded farm items for completing different tasks along their Winter Wonderland journey. By becoming a fan of Discover on Facebook, players will get up-to-the-minute details on how to unlock these items along with access to exclusive tips to help them complete the Discover holiday shopping quest.

“Social games bring people together into virtual communities. They’re captivating increasingly larger online audiences that include many of our Discover card members,” said Mike Boush, vice president of e-business at Discover. “Partnering with Zynga to develop a unique in-game experience helps us connect and engage with players and put more fun in time spent online.”

During Discover’s two-week FarmVille Winter Wonderland sponsorship, existing cardmembers can participate in a Hot Deal promotion that allows them to double the value of their Cashback Bonus rewards on virtual game currency for most Zynga games. This means they can turn $25 in CashBack Bonus into a $50 Zynga game card, while supplies last. Non-cardmembers who apply and are approved for a Discover More card through a special link at www.facebook.com/discover can receive a $100 Zynga game card after making their first purchase with their Discover card.

“This is the first time a brand has helped bring an expansion to our players,” said Ryan Linton, senior director of business development at Zynga. “Discover is bringing our players what they love, and they’re giving them a sneak peek of Winter Wonderland to boot. We love that they’re partnering with us to help bring a little extra holiday cheer.”

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.