Facebook Launches PC Gaming Platform ‘Gameroom’

On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled its app dedicated to PC gaming, Gameroom, at Unite 2016, an annual conference for the Unity game development toolkit.

Facebook made the move after seeing customers preference for mobile gaming apps rather than those for desktops.

A lot of money was made by the social networking service from casual games built into its desktop app, such as Candy Crush, and Zynga’s FarmVille. But income dropped with mobile now the preferred platform for casual gamers.

Featuring close integration with Unity, one of the most-used game developing tools in the world, Gameroom is Facebook’s re-entry into PC gaming, with a clear focus on the casual scene.

It has been in the works since May, when Facebook announced it under the name Facebook Games Arcade, and in August, a collaboration was announced, with Facebook becoming a new build target for the Unity editor.

Gameroom is now available for download and there’s a wide range of games available, including slot games, board games, match threes and trivia quizzes. Most of them are free-to-play but layered with micro-transactions to advance progress or unlock skins and weapons.

In the more traditional genres, strategy games are found with names like Game of Castles, War of Prongs, and so on.

gameroom

Facebook after spotting a huge market and player base for casual games is clearly hoping to bring some of them back to PC with Gameroom. It is now set to rival Steam, the ruling PC gaming platform.