Is Bebo planning a social gaming comeback?

Do you know that bittersweet feeling you get when you realize an ex-romantic partner looks like they could finally be getting their life together without you? That's how we here at AOL's Games.com -- The Blog! are feeling now that we've heard that Bebo -- the formerly AOL-owned social network that was left for dead and then sold off for a pittance earlier this year -- might be relaunching as a social gaming hub.

That bit of news comes from Inside Social Games, which cites "an industry source" as the nebulous originator of the rumor. ISG compares Bebo's rumored plans to those of hi5, which has loudly and pompously positioned itself as a more responsible and streamlined social gaming alternative to the Facebook behemoth. Indeed, Bebo recently hired hi5 co-founder Akash Garg, who probably knows a thing or two about launching a social-game-focused network.

We certainly hope the rumors of Bebo's return to social gaming prove true, especially given their ambitious past experiments in the arena . After all, we just want them to be happy... even if we don't get to be part of that happiness ourselves.

Infographic: 35 percent of social gamers never played video games

Of course, the infographic finds that Facebook is the dominant social game platform, with 83 percent of social gamers using the social network to get their daily farming fix. What's most interesting is the finding that 28 percent of U.S. and UK-based social game fans have paid real money for virtual currency. This is leaps and bounds beyond usual the 3 to 5 percent figure thrown around to estimate the amount of paying social gamers