On November 29, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) announced the ‘Instant Games‘ feature as a cross-platform experience on both the Messenger and Facebook News Feed on its app or web versions.
Instant Games is the network’s most aggressive push into mobile gaming since they released the famous Farm Ville.
It lets users play a library of 17 old-school games with their friends at any time.
Game makers can now make lightweight, HTML5 versions of their titles to release them on Facebook’s gaming platform.
The network has already signed with a handful of prominent game studios, including Konami and Bandai Namco, to give way to a closed beta of the upcoming feature.
How to play Facebook’s Insta games?
Users can find the extension by hitting the game controller icon on Facebook Messenger’s threads next to the stickers and photos buttons.
Users can also start an instant game on the News Feed through recommendations, post, challenges, and the Facebook Pages of individual games.
There will be a dedicated Instant Games bookmark available on the social media platform where people can replay the games they have already checked out on any platform. However, players will share scores only with the people they are playing within Messenger.
Facebook’s Instant Games release date and game list
Instant Games launches on November 29 in 30 countries including the U.S. it will be available on devices running iOS 8.0 and later or Android 5.0 onwards. Users must download the latest version of Facebook and Messenger apps to enjoy the feature.
As HTML5 relies on low graphics and responsible gameplay, there will not be any epics like Infinity Blade on Facebook, rather 80s arcade classics, retro games and simple puzzles. The games already available are:
- Pac-Man: the classical arcade game
- Galaga: a vertical space ship shooter
- Everwing: 1942-style vertical scrolling space ship shooter
- Space Invaders: the classic arcade space shooter
- Arkanoid: arcade brick-breaking paddle game
- Track & Field 100M: button mashing speed trial
- Shuffle Cats Mini: card-flicking shooting gallery
- Words With Friends: Frenzy
- Endless Lake: a valley runner game with funky visuals
- Templar 2048: three-style matching puzzle
- The Tribez: Puzzle Rush: A Candy Crush-like puzzle
- 2020 Connect: another Candy Crush clone
- Hex: a Candy-Crush-style Tetris puzzler
- Zookeeper: timed Candy Crush-like puzzle
- Brick Pop: dots-style puzzle game
- Wordalot Express: puzzle crossword timed competition
Is Instant Games going to be successful?
Social gaming made up about 30% of the time users spent on Facebook back on 2008, although the number is down to 15% on 2016.
As casual gamers shifted to smartphones, Facebook found itself shut out of the market. Only Android and iOS could run app stores, so it was Google and Apple the ones earning revenue on in-game payments.
The potential of Instant Games is already showing as Facebook tested its own basketball shooting game for Messenger last March. People played the game more than 1.2 billion times, a number that was greater than the company’s expectations.
Canadian game studio Big Viking Games is funding $10 million to support third-party development of HTML5 Messenger Instant Games.
Source: Facebook
