This lasted until the closure of MSN Groups in 2009. The website also featured a community forum which was set-up in 2006. It started with a handful of card and board games like Hearts, Spades, Checkers, Backgammon, and Bridge.įor the following 5 years, the Internet Gaming Zone would be renamed several times and would increase in popularity with the introduction of popular retail- and MMORPG-games, such as MechWarrior, Rainbow Six, UltraCorps, Age of Empires, Asheron's Call and Fighter Ace. The site was rebranded to 'Internet Gaming Zone' and launched in 1996. In 1996, Steve Murch, an employee of Microsoft, convinced Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer to acquire the small online game site, then owned by Electric Gravity. The first version of the site, which was then called 'The Village', was founded by Kevin Binkley, Ted Griggs, and Hoon Im. MSN Games is a part of Xbox Game Studios, associated with the MSN portal, and is owned by Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Games are available in free online, trial, and full feature pay-to-play versions. MSN Games (also known as - formerly known as The Village, Internet Gaming Zone, MSN Gaming Zone, and MSN Games by ) is a casual gaming web site, with single player, multiplayer, PC download, and social casino video games.
