The rise of Facebook as a social media system and the rise of mobile gaming were two phenomena that fired up largely alongside each other in terms of time. But the two phenomena really didn't interact for quite some time, and when these two did come together, it made for an interesting problem for Facebook. To solve that problem, Facebook has had to do some reconsidering about the way it addressed issues of mobile development, and mobile developers alike.
With mobile-first gaming becoming increasingly prevalent online, and Facebook's move to being more of a mobile operation likewise coming into play, it becomes clear that Facebook too had to make some changes in a bid to get more involved with developers who were wanting to go mobile more often than standard Web-based. But Facebook originally had a problem with mobile games, and in a sense, still does; playing a game through Facebook on mobile devices is said to be impossible.
However, there are still means for Facebook to be relevant to mobile game developers, particularly as a marketing tool. Games meant for mobile can be launched on Facebook, which draws in new audiences, and Facebook as a promotional vector for an online game is a familiar marketing tool used for just about anything from cars to food and beyond. While gaming on Facebook isn't exactly an option, there's still the issue of Facebook's billion-plus total user base and average 375 million gamers on the platform. Facebook can route users to app stores, and even offer synchronization in some games.
Facebook's 2013 annual report, however, points to something of a contrarian view here, as it says “Platform developers' efforts to prioritize Facebook integrations with their own mobile apps may reduce or slow the growth of our user activity that generates advertising and Payments opportunities, which could negatively affect our revenue.” Yet Facebook seems to be taking a longer-term view of the concept, suggesting that serving as a marketing facilitation platform could ultimately bring gamers around to Facebook-integrated apps and websites alike.
It's enough to make one wonder why Facebook isn't working to make mobile games functional on the mobile site; after all, we know that Facebook has been increasingly going mobile over the last few years, so why not do likewise with its gaming components as well? Why not offer up a mobile game shop or app store-style component? There's quite a bit of revenue that seems to be left behind here. While admittedly, for game producers, there's plenty of value in turning to Facebook as an advertising platform or as part of a marketing tool or even as a customer experience augmentation system, there's not so much value as there would be in allowing users to download games on the premises, taking percentages of the games in question, as well as potentially on any microtransactions that come up in the process. Why leave all this money on the table?
Facebook's game plan here seems to make some sense, but to the outsider, it looks like quite a bit of lost opportunity in the short term and in the long term as well. Only time will tell how well it all works out, or if Facebook makes some changes in the intervening term that improve things further. But right now, Facebook looks to have a plan, one that may pay off in the long term, but then, may not.
Android (operating system) Bethesda Bethesda Softworks Downloadable content Electronic Arts Electronic sports Facebook Fallout (series) Fallout 3 Fallout: New Vegas Gamer Games Google IOS Maryland Massively multiplayer online game Microsoft Microsoft Windows Mobile game Nintendo Oculus Rift PC game Personal computer PlayStation PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Sony The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim United States Video game Video game console Virtual reality Wii Wii U World of Warcraft Xbox Xbox 360 Xbox Live Xbox One YouTube
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- October 2011
- September 2011
Featured Videos