What’s better than having a conversation with a friend? Why, challenging them to a game of Pacman, of course.
Yesterday, Facebook officially rolled out Messenger games, so that users can challenge their friends to rounds of fun via Space Invaders, Words With Friends, and many more. The best part is, you don’t even have to leave the app: just start a conversation with a friend, then press the game controller icon and choose a game to play. Once you’ve played a round, your friend can see your score and challenge you right back.
This is one way that Facebook is trying to regain its previous success with games like Farmville, which not only brought in revenue but also enticed people into staying on the social media site. Currently, all games are free, and there are no ads or in-game purchases. There is no clear plan to monetize the gaming system at the moment, although Facebook may eventually get up to a 30% stake of any revenue.
On the whole, this is a very savvy move for Facebook to make. It’s a great way for them to increase usage on their mobile app, while also creating incentives for people to keep coming back to it. It also allows them to get in on mobile gaming without actually having to create content. The only real downside at the moment is that developers might be reluctant to create new content for the Messenger games feature because of the current lack of revenue. However, the head of Facebook Messenger, David Marcus, promises that “over time, [they’ll] find ways for game developers to monetize.”
Facebook’s foray into mobile gaming brings them one step closer to apps like China’s WeChat or Japan’s Line. Both WeChat and Line offer games in addition to basic chat services, but also serve as social networks, shopping portals, and much more. These “Everything Apps” are integral parts of people’s lives, to the point where WeChat’s WePay service facilitates $50 billion monthly in transfer payments. While there is no one app that has as much of a stranglehold on the US market as WeChat does in China, Messenger’s games update shows that Facebook is trying to change that.
Messenger games are Facebook’s latest attempt to conquer the one-to-one social messaging space, and not rely solely on the one-to-many model of Facebook and Instagram. Snapchat and WhatsApp showed how valuable this type of communication could be, and with Messenger games, Facebook looks to increase its own share of the social messaging space.