FarmVille heads to Microsoft

Runaway Facebook hit FarmVille is set to appear on Microsoft’s entertainment portal MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger.

FarmVille is a bona fide social media phenomenon and social gaming poster-child, with 75 million Facebook players hooking up with the game, every month. San Francisco-based Zynga says it’s targeting further growth via an estimated 500 million users of MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger. The firm says it will be bringing other games to Microsoft’s services, but has made no mention of Xbox Live.

Zynga senior vice president Mike Verdu said, "Social gaming has gone mainstream, Bringing FarmVille to a major site like MSN Games is a great way to expand the reach of social games and is a logical next step in how we deliver them to consumers."

FarmVille is a eal-time strategy game in which Facebook users create and manage virtual farms. They earn achievements and extra kudos by inviting friends to play the game and become neighbours