Microsoft dips a toe into social networking app space

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 05 March 2009 05:10

Business IT - Networking

Is Microsoft starting to get worried about social networking? A couple of MSN games are now available on Facebook and MySpace.

Online casual gaming. If you were alone but wanted to play checkers against a real person, you could always get a matchup on the MSN site.

Assuming you were running Internet Explorer and Windows, that is.

But successes like Scrabulous (now Lexulous) reflected the growing place of social networking in people's online lives.

Even though MSN Games still hosts millions of users each month, Microsoft's playing catch-up by launching a pair of casual games on Facebook and MySpace.

Hexic (a puzzle game involving the rearrangement of coloured tiles) and Chess have been ported to the two social networking platforms.

"We're excited to bring two of our most popular games to the Facebook and MySpace communities," said Megan Hodel, marketing manager for MSN Games at Microsoft.

"These networks reach more than 200 million people around the world, and the MSN Games applications will make it easier and more fun for Facebook and MySpace users to play some of their favorite casual games," she added.