BigPoint: Don’t be blinkered by Facebook EU push

Casual games giant BigPoint has urged European studios to refrain from investing all hope in Facebook, days after the search engine giant revealed plans to open a European development division.

Bigpoint, which makes its fortune from browser games and the open web, says fellow European studios should “investigate multiple routes and platforms to give their game the best chance of success”.

“As Facebook themselves say, as a gaming platform they are only getting started,” said BigPoint CEO Heiko Hubertz (pictured).

“Although Facebook is a fantastic platform, at Bigpoint we believe that it should only be considered as one route to market,” he added.

On Wednesday Facebook announced it would establish a team dedicated to working with European games developers. The social games giant previously admitted it was too indebted to Zynga for revenues across its channel.

Hubertz, whose company also partners with European studios, said he was nevertheless pleased to see Facebook further expanding in Europe.

“Facebook’s entry into Europe can only be viewed positively for the European games industry,” he added.

“However, we would counsel the industry to not become blinkered by this move by Facebook, and decide that Facebook is the only platform to develop for.”