Inside these posts: Games

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Social gaming market to pass $1 billion in 2011

The social gaming market is expected to pass $1 billion this year, thanks to a rising number of users and a projected increase in advertising, according to research group eMarketer.

That marks a 28 percent increase over last year’s market, which totaled $856 million.

Nearly 62 million Internet users in the U.S. — or 27 percent of web surfers — are expected to play at least one game on a social network per month in 2011, up from 53 million last year, eMarketer said. Get the full story »

How free iPhone games can get expensive

“The Smurfs’ Village,” a game for the iPhone and other Apple gadgets, was released a month ago and quickly became the highest-grossing application in the iTunes store. Yet it’s free to download.

So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of Gridley, Calif., has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing. Get the full story »