July 3, 2012 Update: Social-network video games are still very popular, but Facebook is a wounded company now, still stumbling after a debacle of an IPO and, in general, seeming more vulnerable, more prone to be challenged by a rival, than ever before.
May 30, 2012 Update: Since Facebook opened up to the public and settled in with Nasdaq and their very own IPO, troubling reports have surfaced. Though Nasdaq initially went on record to say they were at fault for the resulting glitches, speculation that Facebook had been hiding and falsifying information has resulted in a class action lawsuit. We'll have to see how this progresses and continues to affect Facebook's stock, but so far it does not bode well for early investors.
Feb 20, 2012 Update: Leapfrogged by new Sony boss Kaz Hirai. Facebook may still be a juggernaut, but in preparation for going public, the company revealed just how much it depends on Zynga, one company that generated 12% of mighty Facebook's revenue. What if people lost interest in Zynga games?
Why He's Powerful
The boy king of social holds 800 million people in his hands, making Facebook the largest connected gaming platform in the world. Granted, it's a platform that hasn't been exploited to its full potential—Zynga's Everythingville iterations notwithstanding—but as 3D-capable, browser-based games mature, there's little to prevent Facebook from becoming the one-stop gaming platform of the future.
He can afford to treat Facebook like a gaming platform. And who could stop him? Which game company wouldn't want to access Facebook's more than 800 million of users?
We see increasingly-impressive video games running in browsers. We see increasingly-impressive games running in Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg could make Facebook the power-player in video games, if he wanted to. The question is: does he?