Everybody's favorite arcade games are arriving on Facebook. Pac-Man can now be played in Facebook's News Feed. Galaga is now also playable in Facebook Messenger. Facebook has revealed a new feature that allows games to be played right in the news feed and Facebook Messenger without any download needed.
The intention of the social media giant is to rejuvenate its past leadership in casual and social games so it has opened its Facebook Messenger app to third-party game developers. At one point in time, Facebook was the primary if not the only platform for casual gaming. That time has passed.
According to Forbes magazine, Facebook is still used to sync data and share achievements by many games. Most casual games however, especially the most popular ones, are now downloadable titles on mobile devices. Facebook is seeking to turn all that around. It has just introduced Instant Games to its Messenger service.
Time magazine reports that by including games in Messenger, Facebook intends to revive the popularity of social gaming that happened around 2010 with games such as Farmville. David Marcus, Facebook's vice president of messaging products said that there was a golden age of social gaming which was mainly on the Facebook platform where games were built on a social platform and that hasn't happened since.
Many of the first titles are taken from old arcade hits. There are also some more recent games included. According to gaming website Kotaku, the initial list of available games include Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, and more recent titles like Words With Friends. From the controller icon in a user's Facebook Message box or the Newsfeed's Instant Games tab, these games, together with 13 more games such as Zookeeper, can be seen and are available to play. Games in Messenger are free to play at present. Marcus says that Facebook will investigate ways for game developers to generate revenue next year.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
