According to an article from Hollywood Reporter, Darius Kazemi, Blue Fang Games analyst, announced today that the company is developing the software for Oregon Trail and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, two of the most popular games during the 70’s and the 80’s. Both games will be published by The Learning Company and launched onto Facebook on the 2nd and respectively on the 9th of February.

With over 62 million players in the US only, social gaming is expected to exceed the $1 billion revenue in 2011. Players in the social gaming domain must act fast in order to keep up with the  trends. Zynga, for example, made its 8th acquisition in 2010 of Flock, the social web browser. At the same time, Facebook introduced Facebook Credits as the only payment option for the games it hosts. Inhale Digital implemented a combination of social games and group deal programs and Inspirado Games signed a partnership with World Wildlife Fund Canada to complete a social game aimed at supporting the organization’s principles.

Another noteworthy investment in social gaming is Kabam’s $30 million funding in massively multiplayer social games; the money will be used to pursue its strategic plan of creating a new segment of games that appeal to a more core gamer demographic. Intel also took a strategic approach to social gaming and heavily invested 3$ million in OpenFeint, whereas Google secretly funded Zynga with $100 million to attract Zynga’s loyal players.

Advertisers turned their heads to social gaming as involvement in any rapidly expanding industry generating billions of dollars can be turned to their advantage. Plus there is the captive audience effect, as players enjoy purchasing items and brag meaning that the word-of-mouth technique significantly ease the efforts of advertisers.