Facebook officially unveiled its gaming client Facebook Gameroom on Tuesday. The new platform was developed in partnership with Unity Technologies and announced during a special keynote at the Unite 2016 conference.
Facebook Gameroom is the latest endeavor from the company in its attempt to extend its presence in the gaming scene. Previously, the social network’s biggest step towards this goal was the acquisition of Oculus VR back in 2014.
With Gameroom, Facebook intends to take on the most prominent rival platform, Steam. The Valve client is the largest of its kind, and it has a notorious trajectory among PC gamers as the go-to hub for both social and solo gaming.
Facebook Gameroom is a unique client based on Unity
The newly released Facebook Gameroom was first introduced as Facebook Games Arcade back in May when it announced its partnership with Unity to develop and launch the gaming platform.
Facebook Gameroom is a centralized hub for developers and gamers alike who wish to share their gaming experience with millions of people. Facebook said the client targets over 650 million users who play regularly on the company’s social network.
Gameroom is rolling out its developer Beta right now, and it will enable support for games coded in Unity, while Unity itself will roll out with Facebook integration on its next big update in 2017.
“Facebook Gameroom for PC gaming is a Windows-native client available as a free download for players worldwide. Within the new Facebook Gameroom, players can experience both web games and also native games built exclusively for the platform,” states Facebook on its site.
Does Facebook want to become the next Steam?
The launch of Facebook Gameroom has inevitably drawn comparisons between the new platform and Valve’s Steam. The gaming community is seeing the latest move from Facebook as an attempt to take on Steam as an equal rival.
However, several media outlets have pointed out that this may not be the case, at least for now. Facebook Gameroom’s unity integration is certainly an asset since the cross-platform game engine is the tool to create games on over 20 gaming platforms nowadays.
Facebook support is now in beta! Check it out & deploy to Facebook Gameroom desktop app for Windows or to Facebook: https://t.co/JjSHtRbHbx
— Unity (@unity3d) November 2, 2016
Facebook’s primary aim is not to create the next ‘Counter Strike,’ it is to retain an ever-decreasing user base that has been migrating to mobile gaming instead of keeping up their crops in Farmville.
Facebook Gameroom may someday stand as a matching rival to Steam, but for now, it will serve as a platform for renowned and indie developers to instantly release their creations to thousands of people.
Facebook Gameroom is available for free download on Windows 10 from the client’s official site.
Source: Facebook
