Facebook enters cloud gaming with different services than competitors

Oct 27, 2020

New Delhi, Oct 27 (ANI): Facebook has entered the field of cloud-based gaming service and on October 26 introduced cloud games to its existing Facebook Gaming application. The tech giant's cloud gaming services differs from those offered by competitors Amazon or Google, which both offer standalone cloud gaming services for a fee, The Verge reported. "We are doing free-to-play games, we're doing games that are latency-tolerant, at least to start," said Jason Rubin, Facebook's vice president of play. "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." According to Rubin, the reason Facebook is exploring the cloud is because it opens up the types of games it can offer. The company started out in games more than a decade ago with Flash-based hits like FarmVille before moving to HTML5 for its Instant Games platform, but both of those technologies are relatively limited to smaller, simpler experiences. Facebook's approach to cloud gaming is quite different philosophically from competitors like Google Stadia or Amazon's Luna. The company isn't hyping up its technology or trying to secure big exclusive games. Instead, it feels like more of an extension of what Facebook already offers: quick, easy-to-pick-up titles that can fill up some idle moments in your day, The Verge reported. Similarly, while the focus right now is on free-to-play games, he said, "There may come a day when it makes sense for us to offer a premium game." But the company wanted to start out by making it as easy as possible to play these games. Free is usually pretty easy.