Online gaming is increasingly becoming big business, and networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are introducing new ways to appeal to the gaming community. Here is how social media gaming is evolving and what new you can play.
Of late, social media platforms have been generous towards gaming lovers. Earlier this year, Facebook came up with its ‘Gaming Creator’ program for game broadcasters and introduced the ‘Level Up’ gamer initiative. Level Up provides emerging creators with information and tools to help start their live-streaming communities on Facebook, while also providing access to its live-stream revenue option ‘Stars’.
This is not all; Facebook continues to build on its augmented reality features through the addition of group games in its messenger video chats. The option to play is now available during a video chat where up to six people can participate in a game at once. Just start a messenger video chat, tap the new star icon and select one of the games to start playing.
According to Facebook, you can challenge your friends around the world to two games – first is ‘Don’t Smile’ – where players have to hold a serious face and who holds it for longer, wins. Another game is ‘Asteroids Attack’ in which players compete to better navigate their spaceships. The networking platform is planning to roll out more games in the coming months including passing a beach ball back and forth with ‘Beach Bump’ and a matching cat game called ‘Kitten Kraze’.
As gaming fanatics multiply across the world, Facebook is also expanding its gaming options. While previously the Level Up program was only available in the U.S., United Kingdom, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, it is now expanded into Germany, France, Spain and Ireland. Not only Facebook but other social media applications like Snapchat also introduced group video chats and rolled out interactive games.
Besides drawing gaming fans to their platforms, networking sites are also connecting marketers with their potential customers through these games. For instance, when gamers are active on Twitter, the platform encourages brands to monitor what they are looking for via tweets and which brands they are more likely to follow.