Facebook is tempting to topple the streaming giant, Twitch, with its new Facebook Gaming app. The primary function of this app is to watch streamers as they play a variety of games, exactly like Twitch or Mixer. The difference here is the pre-built Facebook communities. This streaming service ties with your Facebook account meaning your groups and pages can stay intact and enjoy streamers together. The downside is they don’t have all the features of Twitch like hosting and raiding yet. To support your favorite streamers, you buy coins that you then donate to players. These coins range from $1 to $100 with perks for bigger purchases, a very “freemium” business plan. Much like Mixer, Facebook Gaming is poaching some big streamers like Disguised Toast (Jeremy Wang) who plays Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics. Along with watching streamers and connecting with others, you can play some Facebook mobile games. These are your standard Facebook games, but can also be streamed as you play. Facebook is making a fair attempt at Twitch’s crown but time will tell if Facebook can maintain the audience of the hardcore gamers that watch streams.
We will have a review for this app on the next podcast.
Source: Google Store, The Verge, New York Times
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