The application dedicated to video games will be withdrawn from online stores at the end of October. Meta fails to compete with Twitch, which dominates the streaming sector.
Le Monde
The Facebook Gaming application will be withdrawn from online stores on October 28, Meta said on August 30 to his contributors, according to a press release notably shared by Cory “Gothalion” Michael, Streameur that officiated Previously on the platform .
“Despite the news, our mission to connect players, fans and creators with their passion has not changed. You can always find video games, streamers and dedicated groups in the gaming tab ‘Facebook application, “said the company based in Menlo Park, California.
Launched in April 2020 , the application brought together publications related to video game news (trailers, for example), access to discussion groups on this theme and videos of parts made direct by video players. Its launch coincides with the beginnings of the Pandemic of COVID-19 and a strong demand for this type of content by the confined populations. Marc Zuckerberg’s company then intended to compete with Twitch, the Amazon Champion platform in the field of video game streaming. The beginnings of Facebook Gaming had been complicated: Meta (then still called “Facebook”) had to withdraw the possibility of having access to mobile games s on the iPhone version of the application due to ‘A regulation implemented by Apple.
A sector dominated by Twitch
Twitch is currently at the top of this sector which has experienced a strong expansion. This platform is the one that popularized live broadcast on the internet of video game games. This practice also has a strong social dimension: players not only comment on their live actions, but spectators also interact with the content in a chat.
According to A report from the Streamlabs company , Twitch attracted 76.7 % of spectators in the video game stream in the second quarter 2022, against 15.4 % for YouTube Gaming and 7 , 9 % for Facebook Gaming. In total, this report counts that around seven billion hours of video would have been watched on these three platforms during this period.
The end of Facebook Gaming recalls that of mixer, the online video service dedicated to video games set up by Microsoft in 2017. The platform had been talked about after having started, in the fall 2019, the successful streamer Tyler “Ninja” Bledins for an estimated twenty million dollars. But the investment did not bear fruit and the Xbox manufacturer threw in the towel in July 2020. Microsoft then signed a partnership with Facebook to integrate Facebook Gaming into its ecosystem, in place of Mixer. Part of the leading streamers, such as Cory “Gothalion” Michael, then migrated to Facebook Gaming. Sign of the weakening of the Meta platform, the latter turned to Twitch last July.
Meta, however, keeps a foot in the world of video games by being the owner of Oculus, a company which produces Meta Quest virtual reality headsets and which distributes VR games on its store devoted to applications.