Facebook has officially jumped on the bandwagon of cloud gaming. The vast platform is introducing cloud-powered games to its existing application that are currently available to play, unlike Amazon or Google, which offers separate cloud gaming services that come with a price.
Facebook’s Vice President of Play, Jason Rubin expresses how cloud opens up a range of games that Facebook can ultimately offer their audience. Although Facebook is popular for their hit games especially FarmVille and other HTML5 Instant Games, it is relatively a limited experience compared to what other cloud games can offer.
Expanding Facebook’s platform to the cloud will ultimately bring complex games to the mix in a seamless manner. Cost-free cloud games launched on Facebook on October 26th and it includes mostly Android ports, such as the 3D racer Asphalt 9 as well as the idle roleplaying game Mobile Legends: Adventure.
“We’re doing free-to-play games, we’re doing games that are latency-tolerant, at least to start. We’re not promising 4K, 60fps, so you pay us $6.99 per month. We’re not trying to get you to buy a piece of hardware, like a controller.”, Jason Rubin said, according to The Verge.
The new extension will initially be introduced in the US, including California, Texas, as well as states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It will also be available on the web and the Facebook App on Android.
According to The Verge, Facebook users will not feel much of a difference with the gaming experience. It is as simple as going to the app, clicking on the game you wish to play and start playing it right away. Moreover, it includes a new cross-progression system that is tied to your Facebook login. This feature allows you to pick up where you left off even when you switch from Facebook to the mobile application.
Currently, the focus lies on free-to-play games. The company wanted to kick off their service by making everything as smooth and easy as possible for their gamers.
Although Facebook’s cloud offering does not exactly top the other services in the market currently, their ultimate goal is not to sell their games to their audience, rather to keep them engaged and active on Facebook’s vast platform. The platform takes a 30 percent cut from the in-app purchases and a standard cut from the revenue earned through advertising.
“We give away a lot of stuff for free, because that is a business for us”, expressed Jason Rubin in a report by The Verge. He continues, “Don’t undervalue just having people engage with communities on Facebook. That is what we do.”