• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, December 2, 2011

Cementing the value of social gaming, Zynga this week revealed plans to price its IPO at $8.50 to $10 per share for 100 million shares. As such, the company could raise over $1 billion, according to a regulatory filing released Friday.

Not the first “social” darling to go public this year, Zynga is unique in that it’s already turning a profit, writes Wired. (In its latest filing, the company said it made $30.7 million for the first nine months of the year on revenue of $828.9 million.)

Still, citing sources, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Zynga initially planned a much bigger IPO, but scaled back after seeing Groupon and Pandora struggle after their own market debuts.

“In its offering, Zynga appear to be moving cautiously amid the market turmoil and tough environment for I.P.O.’s,” writes The New York Times.

“Even with plans that were reportedly scaled-back, however, the company would have a valuation of between $7.7 billion and $9 billion,” The Washington Post reports.

Reuters reports that such estimates would make it the most valuable game company in the country, ahead of Electronic Arts’ $7.8 billion market cap, though still behind Activision Blizzard’s market value ot $14.2 billion.

Hitting on another sour note, however, NYT cites “signs that growth may be slowing.” Indeed, “after hitting an average of 236 monthly unique users in the first quarter, the game maker has pulled back modestly.”

Also worth pointing out, “the game developer’s reliance on revenue through Facebook may in the future affect the company’s value,” ZDNet writes. “With continual changes to the social media platform, Facebook now requires applications to use its own Credits payment method. As a consequence, Facebook now receives a larger share of profit through Zynga’s players than when previous payment options were available.”

Finally “Exactly what the company will look like after it goes public and employees can cash in remains to be seen,” writes CNet. “Over the last several weeks, current and former employees have been complaining about Zynga, saying that it fosters an undesirable work environment.”