"A [free] Facebook account is required to play FarmVille," says Zynga. "Current FarmVille players can access their existing Facebook farm, and new users can create a farm."

FarmVille for iPhone and iPod touch is also compatible with, but not optimized for, iPad.

To further entice would-be farmers to make the mobile leap, "several exclusive market items and gifts" are only available in this incarnation of the game, with Zynga promising to update the client with more features, such as multi-tasking functionality and "enhanced graphics" to take advantage of the iPhone 4's "retina display," in the near future.