Social media giant Facebook announced that they are partnering with computer software company Unity Technologies for the new Facebook PC gaming platform.
Unity Technologies is the developer of the Unity game engine, which is used for creating 2D, 3D, VR and AR games. The two companies, according to the announcement on Facebook's Developer News, "are working together to expand Facebook's set of game developer tools and services and give Unity developers new ways to reach and engage the millions of gamers on Facebook."
The announcement adds that there is a new PC-gaming platform currently being developed, and this is part of what Unity is doing as it integrates support for the Facebook platform.
In a nutshell, they are working together so that developers can more easily export and publish games on the social media site. Facebook says that they have more than 650 million players every month and that they were able to pay $2.5 billion to game developers last year.
While it was not explicitly stated in the announcement, Extreme Tech claims that Facebook "intends to challenge" Valve's Steam, which is the dominant player in the field of PC gaming distribution.
The report also says that Facebook games would run on different operating systems, including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Cross-platform capability could be attractive, but the deterrent might be some gamers' hesitation of being tracked while playing. As the publication mentioned, some gamers are not into the "always-online" kind of gaming in which their every action is recorded and collected and subsequently used for targeted marketing and advertising.
Facebook initially offered online games like Mafia Wars and Farmville, and is continuously adding more, as listed on Facebook's Download Arcade, currently in Beta. Steam's catalogue is available on their online store, and says that they have more than 3,500 games.
