Finally, all that planting and sowing has paid off. Zynga, the parent company of popular Facebook game FarmVille, was recently valued at $1 billion by Pacific Crest Securities, a technology-focused investment bank.

This could be the result of 63.7 million active virtual farmers in FarmVille, the most popular game application on Facebook to date. The California-based game developer also created Mafia Wars and the recently-launched Fishville, an underwater version of the popular crop-themed game.

Valuations for Zynga and other game developers on Facebook surfaced after Electronic Arts (EA) Inc. bought Playfish, creator of Pet Society and Restaurant City, for three to four times its revenue. Rumor has it that EA acquired Playfish for $250 million, but reports confirm that EA actually paid a much bigger sum of $275 million.

According to Terry Schallich, head of capital markets at Pacific Crest Securities, should Zynga decide to make their company public, they could generate a value of $1 billion. This move, which is anticipated by bankers and investors, would make Zynga the third-largest US video-game publisher by market capitalization.

Zynga is not going to reap the harvest just yet. “Our mission is to accelerate our product development and business plan,” says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus. According to him, offering Zynga to the public would be considered a distraction for the company.

Zynga’s revenue this year is estimated to be at $210 million and $355 million for the next year. Meanwhile, Zynga reported that it has surpassed 100 million unique monthly users for the first time and has launched its standalone game site, FarmVille.com.

90% of the game developer’s revenue comes from consumers buying tools and toys for playing games such as FarmVille. Animals, lots, and even chicken coops are sold in FarmVille for real cash.

Though the future looks bright for social gaming companies, analysts warn that the games may be a fad. “Consumers’ appetites in these worlds change rapidly, somebody can be playing Farmville for a couple of weeks and then get bored and they are gone. It’s one click away,” said Jesse Divnich of Carlsbad, California-based Electronic Entertainment Design & Research. (Lace L)

Sources: Bloomberg, Mashable, Wikipedia, San Francisco Business Times, Industry Gamers