Facebook’s Instant Games platform makes it possible to play titles like Pac-Man in Messenger or on your News Feed, and today it’s getting some significant updates. Chief among them is a new live-streaming option that lets you broadcast any Instant game you’re playing through Facebook Live. These streams will also be recorded so you can post them to your profile afterward.
Facebook also says that it’s starting to test video chat for select games, so that you can see your friends while you play and even start up a new game from within a video call. The Messenger version of Words With Friends will be the first to utilize this feature early next year.
One year after launch, Facebook says that Instant Games has more than 70 titles available, though it’s not clear how many people are actually playing these games, nor how lucrative they are for developers. (Facebook only added monetization options back in October.) Over the next few months, Instant Games will see the addition of a handful of big-name mobile titles that will be “reimagined” for the platform. That includes Angry Birds, Disney’s Tsum Tsum puzzle game, Sonic Jump, and Puzzle & Dragons.
The additions hint that well-known brands and mobile-style experiences are doing particularly well on the platform, something Facebook was unsure of at launch. “We’re going to find out as time goes by what works on the platform,” Leo Olebe, Facebook’s director of global games partnerships, told The Verge last year.
Facebook also says that it’s starting to test video chat for select games, so that you can see your friends while you play and even start up a new game from within a video call. The Messenger version of Words With Friends will be the first to utilize this feature early next year.
One year after launch, Facebook says that Instant Games has more than 70 titles available, though it’s not clear how many people are actually playing these games, nor how lucrative they are for developers. (Facebook only added monetization options back in October.) Over the next few months, Instant Games will see the addition of a handful of big-name mobile titles that will be “reimagined” for the platform. That includes Angry Birds, Disney’s Tsum Tsum puzzle game, Sonic Jump, and Puzzle & Dragons.
The additions hint that well-known brands and mobile-style experiences are doing particularly well on the platform, something Facebook was unsure of at launch. “We’re going to find out as time goes by what works on the platform,” Leo Olebe, Facebook’s director of global games partnerships, told The Verge last year.