Google to Launch Google Games with “FarmVille”-Maker Zynga [RUMOR]

Google is reportedly partnering with FarmVille and Mafia Wars game-maker Zynga to launch a hub where you’ll be able to play social online games.

The source of the rumor is the tech blog TechCrunch, which claims to have confirmed the story with multiple sources. The search giant has allegedly invested between 100 and 200 million dollars in the massive game company, which already sits with Google () in the small club of web companies that are valued at much more than $1 billion.
Details on the new portal (which TechCrunch calls “Google Games”) are few and far between. The best hints you’ll find are in a job posting for position at the top of Google’s Games division. The “Project Management Leader, Games” would develop a “games commerce product strategy” through both partnerships and in-house projects of one kind or another. The job posting also specifies that both web-based and mobile games are part of the plan.
We’ve contacted both Google and Zynga seeking more details about the deal and what to expect from both companies in the future.

Nokia’s do-good Conspiracy

Nokia has joined forces with Tim Kring, creator of hit TV series Heroes, to launch the Conspiracy For Good campaign. The venture combines Kring’s storytelling with the brand’s Ovi platform to create a dramatic experience using interactive theatre, mobile, alternate reality gaming, music and physical participation to ‘do good in the world’.
Participants enter into the story, which fuses reality with fiction, at the Conspiracy For Good website where they can join like-minded folk to fight for social and environmental justice. They can solve mysteries online, play casual mobile games or be a physical participant in the London events that will take place from mid-July until early August.
Participation on Ovi occurs through a series of existing and yet-to-be-launched apps with casual games such as Exclusion which unlock codes to confidential websites, Ovi Maps for guiding characters through the story, and Ovi Music where hidden info within songs can be deciphered to advance the narrative about CFG’s battle with multinational company Blackwell Briggs.
“I believe that storytelling has the power to create positive change in the world,” says Kring. “Audiences today want to be more involved in stories. Our goal with the Conspiracy For Good is to entice, engage, and inspire the audience to drive real-world change through their participation in a narrative.”
“Conspiracy For Good is Nokia’s most powerful example to date for how content owners can blur the lines between the online and real-world to connect people to change,” says Tero Ojanpera, evp, Nokia.