One of the top games to ever appear on Facebook, FarmVille, is launching outside of the social network. Through a new partnership with Microsoft, Zynga (the creators of FarmVille) will bring their popular game to MSN Games, a destination site for casual gamers. This will be the first time the game launches outside of social networking sites in general, save for its own site at FarmVille.com.
Gamers who play the new MSN Games edition of FarmVille will be able to authenticate using Facebook Connect technology, which allows you to forgo creating a username and password. Instead, gamers will use their Facebook ID to login and play.
Since last June, FarmVille has grown to over 76 million users on Facebook alone and with its launch on MSN, the game is on track to bring in millions more. MSN Games currently has tens of millions of players on its site every month.
As to why someone would login on MSN Games instead of Facebook to play? Perhaps they’re just casual gamers unaware of the thousands of gaming apps on Facebook? Nah, it’s probably because Facebook is blocked at their workplace.
