Facebook helping reboot what games can be

Social network giant Facebook says its fast-growing global games platform comes from one thing: a focus on people.

Speaking to MCV, engineers at the firm said Facebook’s social layer has helped reboot industries for the better.

The higher level of what we are doing is working with industries to reimagine themselves as if they were social from the beginning,” said senior open programmes manager David Recordon.

What Facebook did was strip a lot of that away and focus on the people.

So for instance we made photos a social experience.”
He pointed to two leaders in the space – Zynga and EA, which owns Playfish – as having already understood this key part of social games.

Zynga and EA are reimagining what games are like with social as the default.”

Through games like CityVille and FarmVille (Zynga) plus Pet Society and Restaurant City (Playfish) the two reach around 60m gamers daily on Facebook.

Facebook now wants such successes to be repeated by non-US firms – last week it pledged its commitment to helping European developers make the most of its platform.

Since beefing up its London office last year, which acts as its European HQ, it has started working with firms of all sizes via a mix of networking, events, and improved local support for developers making Facebook apps and using its API.