Zynga, Ngmoco donating to Japan through iOS games

Giant gaming company Zynga has joined the Japanese relief effort by enabling in-game donations in FrontierVille, FarmVille, CityVille and other games. A full 100 percent of the virtual goods' purchase prices will be donated to Tsunami relief, and Zynga is partnering with the Save the Children to raise money for its Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund.

Charity-minded players can donate by buying specific virtual goods, like a sweet potato crop in CityVille, a Kobe cow in FrontierVille, radishes in FarmVille and a royal flush for Zynga Poker. Ambitiously, Zynga is aiming to raise US$2 million. Zynga representative Dani Dudeck says the campaign was created in under 24 hours and is their largest charitable campaign to date.

This will be the first Zynga.org CityVille initiative. "The recent earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck Japan brought unimaginable devastation and loss to the country and its citizens," says Zynga. "Our collective hearts at Zynga go out to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by this tragedy. Immediately following the earthquake, Save the Children, an organization that Zynga has worked closely with in the past, quickly sprang into action and created the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund. We at Zynga are grateful that we can offer some assistance to Save the Children by mobilizing our technology, people and amazing community of players to support this organization in providing aid to the children of Japan."