Gaming on Facebook has been gaining momentum through the year, with people spending more than $1.5bn on games in the first half of 2013.
There are now more than 260 million people playing games every month. Last year, more than 100 developers generated more than $1m in revenue from Facebook. Facebook’s Q3 earnings, announced that it was Facebook’s first $2bn quarter in terms of revenue. The "payments and other" revenue in Q3 was $218m and payments revenue from games was up 18% from last year.
Facebook has also announced that is has made significant updates to its Unity SDK and removed it from Beta. Facebook is now making it even easier for more than 2 million developers working with Unity to tap into Facebook’s leading social features.
The newest version of the SDK makes cross-platform development easier and increases compatibility for apps using multiple plug-ins. Additionally, the SDK is up to date with the latest features of Facebook’s iOS and Android SDKs.
The updated SDK makes it simple for games to let users share screen shots of their game experience with friends. This feature is very popular among players of Cmune’s Uberstrike, a game that recently integrated our SDK.
Other Unity games using the SDK are also having great success. For example, Madfinger launched its mobile only game, Shadowgun: Deadzone on Facebook and increased its total daily players by more than 75% for the first couple weeks. Since integrating the SDK, Nival’s strategy and combat game, Kings Bounty: Legions, has doubled conversion of Facebook users who install the Unity plugin and start the game’s first fight.
Game Insight’s village builder/strategy game The Tribez has attracted more than 1.4 million players on Facebook alone since its launch in September, bringing its total player base across platforms to more than nine million.
Following on from the hit HBO television series and George RR Martin’s bestselling novels, the Game of Thrones Ascent game is also having an impact on Facebooks. Users can play as Disrupter Beam and attempt to forge an empire of their own in the land of Westeros.
