Woah. Check it. TechCrunch is reporting that Google has invested a whopping $100 to $200 million on social gaming Zynga, which is behind the likes of Farmville and Mafia Wars.
This news comes as Google prepares to launch Google Games sometime later this year, although we won’t be at all surprised if the launch ends up being in early 2011.
TechCrunch’s “multiple sources” say that Google itself, not its venture capital division Google Ventures, has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, a huge power play presumably with the aim of eroding Facebook’s social media dominance.
It seems that Google sees Zynga as the best way to hit the ground running with Google Games, a social gaming service from the search company that’s set to launch later this year. TechCrunch points to this job opening for “Product Management Leader, Games” at their Mountain View campus as proof that we’ll be seeing a lot more about Google’s move into gaming in the near future.
