MySpace is in the news today for the launch of a new games section on their site. While the section has yet to release, many are missing the fact that MySpace previously had a games section with close to 100 games. You could play against your friends and even chat with other players. I’m not quite sure when they took down the games section given that I stopped using MySpace long ago but the news here is that MySpace has partnered with Oberon Media, a casual gaming provider.

While MySpace’s games section may not have been a hit the first time around, they are realizing that Games may be key to keeping people on the site after watching the release of the Facebook platform. Many of the most successful applications on Facebook are currently games. From Noggin to Scrabulous, games are attracting a lot of attention on the social platform. So are games a key component to the success of any social network? I think so as long as social features are integrated into the application (aside from Pacman which has now become a favorite of mine).

Yesterday, I listed some of my favorite games on the Facebook platform in my list of the top 25 Facebook applications. The largest category in my top 25 list was in fact games. I’m not quite sure what percentage of my time spent on Facebook is spent playing games but I would guess it is a significant amount. As MySpace sits on the sidelines and watches what is most successful on the Facebook platform, they are rapidly taking small components of the Facebook playbook. It will be interesting to see what happens when the MySpace platform finally launches (whenever that may be).