Facebook To Promote Mobile Games And Take A Cut

Buried deep within a blog post announcing Facebook’s new effort to promote discovery of mobile games for small- and medium-sized game publishers is a passing reference to the fact that the social behemoth will take a revenue share of a given game’s success. It’s humorous that Facebook is downplaying this aspect of the program, because (assuming Facebook’s cut is a reasonable one) it’s a more than fair trade; most devs would likely give their eye teeth to garner the favor and support of Facebook.

Facebook Mobile Games Publishing is a “new pilot program to help small and medium-sized developers take their mobile games global”, and Facebook will promote select games “in placements across our mobile apps”. Facebook will also contribute analytics tools and tips on growing a platform to devs, with the end goal being attracting “high-quality”, “long-term” players.

This announcement is a healthy one for the mobile games market; assuming that it gains any traction (which it should, as Facebook has over a quarter billion users that play games and 800 million that use mobile apps), Facebook provides a viable alternative to app store offerings from the likes of Apple, Android, and Microsoft.


For Facebook, this is another vector for generating income, which follows on the heels of its success with mobile ad revenue.

There are already 10 developers working with the Facebook program:

-5th Planet’s RPG card battle game, Dawn of the Dragons
-Brainbow’s puzzle-packed adventure game, Dr. Newton: The Great Brain Adventure
-Certain Affinity's pirate-themed strategy game, Age of Booty: Tactics
-Dragonplay's social poker game, Live Hold'Em
-Gameloft's medieval strategy/simulation game, Kingdoms & Lords
-Gamevil's city building simulation game Train City
-KiwiGames’ quest-based exploration game, Shipwrecked
-Outplay Entertainment's explore-and-battle fantasy game, Monster Legacy
-Space Ape's multiplayer combat strategy game, Samurai Siege
-WeMade Entertainment's endless-running game WINDrunner

There will likely be more quite soon; interested parties can apply to join the program on the Mobile Games Publishing page of the Facebook Developers site.