Facebook launches cloud gaming feature to its platform

Facebook Inc has launched a cloud gaming service on its social media platform, although it’s a bit different from Google’s Stadia or Microsoft’s xCloud.

According to the company, the new features will be allowing users to stream and play games like “Asphalt 9: Legends” and “WWE SuperCard” without downloading them.

Talking about cloud gaming service, Jason Rubin, VP of Play, Facebook said in a blog post, “Today we’re announcing that Facebook Gaming has launched several cloud-streamed games in the Facebook app and on browser — playable instantly, with no downloads required. We recently had 200,000 people playing our cloud-streamed games per week in limited regions, so while it’s not exactly a secret, I’m excited to lay out what we’re building. Cloud game-streaming promises to deliver unprecedented access to games across every screen. And while we’re thrilled to play a part in that future, that future is a ways off. So before we talk about our aspirations, let me start with what we’re not doing. Cloud gaming announcements are prone to hype, so I’m going to speak openly from the outset.”

In the blog, Rubin also revealed that the users will be able to play the games on the Gaming tab on Facebook or the News Feed. “All cloud-streamed games are playable in the same way you play games now on Facebook — whether it’s in our Gaming tab or from News Feed. No special hardware or controllers needed; your hands are the controller since we’re launching with native mobile games. And you can play these games with a mouse and keyboard on the desktop. More than 380 million people play games each month on Facebook, and people will play cloud-streamed games right alongside those playing instant games in HTML5. And if we do our jobs right, you won’t notice how the games are delivered,”

The feature will be available to Android and web users, for now, Facebook said, while it was working on alternative options to launch the feature on Apple`s iOS.