After losing mobile gaming to iOS and Android, Facebook is making a big push into playing on PC with today’s developer launch of its Gameroom Windows desktop gaming platform. After months of name changes, beta tests and dev solicitation, Facebook opened up the beta build for all developers and officially named it Gameroom. The app is openly available for users to download on Windows 7 and up.
Gameroom let users play web, ported mobile and native Gameroom games in a dedicated PC app free from the distractions of the News Feed.
Gameroom will have to fight a steep uphill battle again Valve’s Steam platform, which has well over 125 million active users, with millions actually playing at any given moment. Facebook will need to convince developers that Gameroom will share its social network’s massive reach and is therefore worth their while. Then it will have to persuade gamers that a more social experience is worth diving into a new platform. If Facebook succeeds, there are plenty of potential benefits to owning a gaming destination.
It can earn a 30 percent revenue cut on payments in games. It can tie users deeper into the Facebook identity layer, making it harder for them to ditch the social network. It could drive ad sales as developers seek to promote their games in Facebook’s News Feed or potentially with sponsored placement in Gameroom if Facebook allows it. And it could generate Facebook Live content from players streaming their gameplay.
Steam might be the favorite of hardcore existing gamers, but Facebook is betting there’s a huge untapped swath of the mainstream ready to play, too.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/01/facebook-gameroom/
