In the latest sign that Facebook is trying to win over social game developers, the company has today launched a Page called Facebook + Games. The Page describes itself as a place for the games partner and business community where participants can hear the latest on the Facebook Platform games ecosystem and social game innovation.
Facebook has had a long road to travel with social game developers, particularly following its announcement of Facebook Credits as a mandatory integration across all social games made in summer of last year. Since that time, Facebook has made overtures to the development community through “Operation Developer Love,” which launched last fall. Around that same time, Facebook appeared to be cracking down on game developers that in any way violated its terms of service agreements, however unknowingly.
We’ve also heard stories of Facebook showing preferential treatment to larger developers while turning a blind eye to smaller ones with identical concerns about content and terms of service restrictions. For example, three-man developer team Diviad GmbH tells ISG that Facebook told them to remove a “Whiskey” item from within their game, Ghost Trappers, while Zynga’s Café World still openly features alcoholic beverage items.
We’ll keep an eye on the Facebook + Games page for further developments. In the meantime, catch up on our Road to Credits series.
Source: Inside Social Games
Tuesday, May 24, 2011