AOL social network Bebo reportedly set to close

Here at Games.com -- The Blog! we're a fully-owned subsidiary of the fine folks at AOL (A shout out to any corporate overlords reading this. Hi guys!). But even we don't really pay that much attention to Bebo, a social network that the company bought for $850 million back in 2008. Apparently we're not the only ones not paying attention, as AOL is reportedly considering killing off the struggling social network by the end of May.

It wasn't a lack of social gaming that killed off Bebo -- the site apparently had a healthy 5,000+ games for its users to play, including versions of popular titles like Pet Society and MindJolt Games. Of course, social gaming is only as good as the friends available to play with you, and with millions of college and high school students locked in early to social networks like MySpace and Facebook, friends flocked to those burgeoning services rather than AOL's Bebo. Even at its height in 2006, Bebo only had 21.6 million registered users -- a respectable number, but one that compares rather unfavorably to Facebook's recent count of 250+ million. Recent Bebo user counts are reportedly much lower.

So we offer a (perhaps premature but still heartfelt) final salute to our fellow AOL-owned compatriots over at Bebo -- the latest social gaming victims of the Facebook juggernaut. May you rest in peace.