Need another sign that social games are big business? A new report suggests that Zynga, the publisher of games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars could be worth more than $3 billion -- more than half the market capitalization of Electronic Arts ($5.4 billion). Other notes from the report: - Only 2% or 3% of users spend money on Zynga games and less than 1% consistently purchase virtual goods. Zynga makes nearly 40% of its revenue from those sales. Other revenue sources include in-game advertisements and marketing offers. - Upcoming Facebook changes could affect Zynga's apps. ...

Unity 3D game developers now have a definitive place to go to monetize and socialize their online games. OverInteractive Media Inc. has just launched dimeRocker, the innovative self-publishing platform for Unity 3D game developers to deploy, manage and monetize their content across the social web from a single, centralized account.

"It is no longer about people going to a portal for a game, it is about bringing that game to people anywhere, on any platform," said OverInteractive Media CEO Glen Lougheed. "This is the future of social gaming, and ...

Just hours after Electronic Arts announced it was buying social gaming outfit Playfish for up to $400 million, Google has announced that it’s buying mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million in stock. Since its inception, AdMob has served more than 125 billion mobile ads (according to the counter on its homepage) across a variety of platforms including iPhone and Android. Read the full article at Mashable.

Games are the killer app on social networks. Tens of millions of consumers are opting to play simple, quick games on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere — often via their mobile devices. An estimated 100 million people are recent devotees of social games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Sorority Life and Bejeweled.

The gamers, many of whom eschewed traditional video-game consoles, have spurred revenue for Facebook. The 5-year-old social-networking site recently announced it was operating in the black — a major feat in an industry beset by doubts about its ability ...

Hundreds of millions of today’s gamers are enjoying light, fun, “snackable” games played within social networks. This fanbase is expected to surge to 250M in 2009 from 50M the previous year. The market for this upstart genre of entertainment is pegged at $2B. And with low production costs, unlimited free marketing and multiple revenue streams, social games promise big business for years to come.

Generating real world dollars from virtual goods, advertising and sponsorship, social games represent ...