Social media giant Facebook has just announced that it will soon be implementing a game-streaming feature. You will be able to watch people playing games on the news feed, which is what most people want to do on Facebook right?
Personally, I don’t go to supermarkets for cream teas in the garden; if you want to view people playing games then there are already quite a few social sites that offer this feature, Twitch, Youtube and Hitbox to name a few.
I am not saying it will not succeed, after all, there are over 600 Million people playing games on Facebook, so the law of averages is in their favour. Facebook want their users to realise that they really want to watch other people playing games but they don’t know it yet.
All sounds pretty good right? What I have not mentioned yet though is probably what will hold it back from being a success. You can watch anyone stream any game to Facebook, well, maybe not any game. Facebook have struck a deal with Blizzard Entertainment, so, as long as you are into Blizzard games this will be right up your alley.
The list of games is quite extensive though:
World of Warcraft
Overwatch
Hearthstone
Heroes of the Storm
Diablo
Starcraft 2
Users will be able to log into Facebook via Blizzard and then stream directly to their feed. Viewers, on the other hand, will be able to leave real-time comments for the players to read directly from Facebook.
The undisputed leader of game-streaming has to be Twitch at the moment. Twitch is very much the ESPN of game streaming; they have approximately 100 Million people checking the site out every month and that number is growing.
Adding to this, Twitch is not just about gaming. You can tune in and watch someone working on their latest painting, performing live acoustic music or perhaps just cooking their dinner.
Without a doubt though, it is a very shrewd move by Facebook. At a time when online gaming is beginning to be picked up by the mainstream as a valid form of entertainment. The captive audience aspect of Facebook coupled with streaming could do very well, as long as you like Blizzard games that is!