Facebook is working on introducing a new platform called ‘Instant Games’, which will rival the native mobile ecosystems established by Google and Apple with the help of their mobile operating systems. Facebook has not been able to get back into the gaming sector on mobile devices despite a proper platform on desktop devices.
According to reports, the company is following up on the success of inbuilt games like Basketball in Facebook Messenger. Even though there is no precise date of launch for this new platform, some of the games are already available to play. Since it is yet to launch officially, you can’t share your score or invite others to play the game. These HTML5 games can be embedded anywhere, right from web pages to Messenger screens to bots. This can be the strategy that Facebook has long been waiting for to drive up user interaction on Facebook Messenger as people can play and challenge their friends on the platform.
Image Credit: TechCrunch
Image Credit: TechCrunch
According to the report by TechCrunch, the company will soon launch a proper API and development kit for third party developers. Some of the games set to be part of the platform are already online, though they seem to be geo-locked and may not be playable at all locations. But one of the most important factors is that the games will not be heavy in terms of file size of the data files.
This way a large number of people can play these games in the Messenger without any additional download. One thing to note here is that this is not the first attempt by Facebook to enter the mobile gaming market, since its first attempt went down the drain in 2012. This comes right after the launch of Facebook Gameroom, a new offering by Facebook to target PC gaming platform like Steam.