Facebook is finally making a standalone app for gaming. As reported by The New York Times, the world’s largest social media platform will release a dedicated app for letting users stream and view games on Monday. Facebook is already letting users stream via its Live Stream feature in its app, but now, it’s this dedicated app that will let the company share the pie that’s highly dominated by Twitch and YouTube.
Cashing on the sudden surge
The gaming industry is one of the booming sectors, and have picked even more pace due to Coronavirus caused nationwide lockdowns. These home quarantine restrictions led people to reply to online entertainments much, and gaming platforms are looked by many as never before. Now, considering the 2.5 billion user base, Facebook’s gaming app will let even more users start streaming.
The company said the app will first be launched for Android via Playstore, and soon followed by iOS when Apple approves it. As per Facebook, this app was actually set to launch in June this year but preponed on seeing the demand cause by lockdowns. This ongoing situation can take more users and many are interested in gaming and spend a lot of time on phones these days.
A special feature called Go Live will let users upload steams of other mobile games, or even play their own and stream them. Initially, the app will let you stream, follow several gaming communities and play casual inbuilt games. These can be shared on their friends’ Facebook pages to garner popularity.
As of now, Facebook is interested more in building the user base rather than making money. So there are no ads withing for now, but after a rise in popularity, it shall search for ways to monetize this service too. The app’s been in testing for 18 months in Latin America and Southeast Asia and now set to roll out for all public via Playstore.
Via: The New York Times
