The online gaming company behind the CityVille and FarmVille games has officially opened its new operations centre in Dublin to support international players of its games.

Zynga plans to recruit additional staff for its new centre, which will become the company's largest European office.

Zynga is the world's largest social game developer with more than 250 million monthly users playing games such as Empires & Allies, CityVille, FarmVille and FrontierVille on a number of platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, the iPad, the iPhone and Android devices.

Welcoming the opening of the new multilingual operations centre, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said that Ireland is well-positioned to become a world leader in the rapidly growing area of digital gaming if the right policies are implemented.

IDA chief executive Barry O'Leary said: "Zynga is a very welcome addition to the digital media industry cluster in Ireland with many of the world's leading 'born on the internet' companies having established significant operations here. With an ever increasing number of such companies locating in Ireland, we are well established as the internet capital of Europe."

Zynga is believed to be preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). The company has acquired more than 10 companies in the last year, helping it expand beyond Facebook games and into smartphone apps. Zynga bought Newtoy, maker of Words With Friends, in December. Four months later, it acquired Wonderland Software, creator of GodFinger.

Additional reporting: Bloomberg