“FarmVille” has sure grown a lot of gamers. A new study by The NPD Group 
finds that 20 percent of the U.S. population has played a game on a social network at one point or another. That works out to 56.8 million Americans.
Thirty-five percent of those players are new to gaming, having never previously experimented with any form of video game.
For the better part of the last year, game industry pundits have shouted from the rooftops that social network gaming was the next big thing – but it’s starting to look like even they underestimated just how big it would be.
Major media companies, traditional game developers and more are gobbling up the developers of Facebook and MySpace games – and the price tags are escalating at a startling pace.
Google, which has been a looming threat in the gaming world, 
appears to be edging closer to becoming a major player in online games.
The search giant has invested at least $100 million in social gaming company Zynga, the developer of some of the biggest games on Facebook, including “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars,” to help launch Google Games, which is expected later this year.
Chris Morris: Journalist 