Facebook’s strategy for mobile is taking a playful turn. The company is toying around with becoming a mobile game publisher and is currently working with a small number of developers to market and distribute their games.
Facebook has had success in making money from games on its online platform, a trend that the once-giant social game maker Zynga helped establish with free-to-play games such as FarmVille and CityVille. Neither Facebook nor Zynga have had the same success in mobile. The great majority of mobile games are currently being purchased in app stores set up by Apple and Google, where each take 30 percent of all digital purchases. Facebook is hoping that by becoming a publisher it can sidestep the game platform play that worked well for it online, but where it is well behind Apple and Google on mobile.
For the time being, Facebook is focusing on working only with small independent developers. Its publishing model revolves around helping games with marketing and reach to have a chance at becoming a hit. It’s not currently funding development or tweaking the games it signs in major ways, as major game publishers are wont to do.
Outside of Google and Apple, Facebook will also be going up against a number of heavy hitters on the mobile publishing side such as Chillingo and King. It certainly has the resources and reach to help its games compete, and may in turn even establish games as a steady source for revenue outside of what it makes from its ad vehicles.
As for developers, they will have to play the same game they do anytime they’re faced with signing an outside publisher. There are disadvantages such as of giving control of IP, and of course giving up revenue. The upside is the promise of a bigger audience for their games. Just how helpful Facebook will be in that regard in the mobile space remains to be seen.
Source: TechCrunch
