A few years ago, Facebook was one of the biggest PC gaming platforms online as it offered casual and web-based games from developers like Zynga and Supercell. Casual gamers were provided with addictive online games such as "Farmville" and "Hay Day." Unfortunately, that reign was short lived as users were quick to transition to the mobile platform to get their fix of casual games.
Now, the company is set to once again face off against platforms such as Steam and mobile OSs with its latest gaming platform called "Gameroom."
The concept itself had already been worked on by the company for several months now and has actually already gone through several name changes and beta tests. Now, Facebook is moving forward with opening up its beta build to game developers in hopes of attracting more games into its platform.
The company officially made the announcement at the recently concluded Unity's Game Development Platform Conference, which was also the venue where it revealed their platform's name.
Valve's Steam platform is, of course, the most used platform for hardcore gamers today. The platform even boasts a whopping 125 million active users, with millions of users playing their games at any given time.
Meanwhile, Facebook's new platform will apparently have a different approach as it aims to use its social networking prowess to its advantage. There is still quite a big market for mainstream gamers who are looking for more casual games including different shooter, puzzle, strategy, and simulation games online.
As of the moment, the best place to get access to these games are still through mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android.
Facebook's Gameroom platform is being developed for the Microsoft Windows operating system and will be made available to download for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 versions. It still remains to be seen if the platform's added social experience will be enough to persuade gamers to shift into the new platform when it comes out.
