Google Games – along with the company’s social efforts – may stand a better chance of getting off the ground than most people thought.  Reports indicate that Google’s established ties with one of the top organizations in the social gaming space by investing $100-$200 million in Zynga.

Neither company’s confirmed the move, and obviously there’s a big difference between $100 million and $200 million.  But Michael Arrington was able to write this weekend, "Google has quietly (secretly, one might say) invested somewhere between $100 million and $200 million in social gaming behemoth Zynga, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources."

If that sounds farfetched, remember that Google’s spending $700 million to acquire ITA Software, and that Hitwise identified gaming as the next big hole in Google’s product portfolio.

Another factor to consider is that Zynga has been growing increasingly unhappy with Facebook’s policy changes and restrictions.

Then it’s important to note that Arrington later added, "[I]t’s a highly strategic deal.  Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year . . . .  Not only will Zynga’s games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games.  And I wouldn’t be surprised to see PayPal being replaced with Google Checkout as the primary payment option."

Stay tuned for further details.  Now that a rough idea of the situation’s become public, Google and Zynga may see fit to supply the specifics.