Facebook's presence in the gaming world has expanded in numerous meaningful ways since the era of daily Farmville notifications. The latest addition to Facebook Gaming, the company's bona fide sub-site for nearly everything the company does that's gaming related, is now the acquisition of PlayGiga, a Spanish cloud-based gaming company. Facebook paid the hefty sum of 70 million euros, which converts to around 78 million dollars, for ownership of the company.
Prior to the acquisition, PlayGiga offered its cloud gaming service to customers throughout Europe as well as in some parts of the Middle East. Since the acquisition just took place, Facebook hasn't yet made their plans with the company public beyond the fact that they were acquired, so it's unclear if the service will remain solely available in its current regional market, or if it will be a starting point for a larger, Facebook-sized cloud gaming service down the line.
Meanwhile, CloudGiga posted a short statement to its website stating that the company has "moved onto something new." Their ownership by Facebook is described as a "new mission," which could either suggest a retooling for a wider market as part of the Facebook Gaming platform, or simply a rebrand as a Facebook-specific service that offers more-or-less the same features.
Prior to the acquisition, Facebook Gaming has been focusing on building its roster of streamers exclusive to the platform. In addition to other notable personalities, Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics streamer DisguisedToast and one-time competitive Super Smash Bros star ZeRo both recently switched over from Twitch to exclusive deals with the social media giant. Other new or recent Facebook Gaming moves include the acquisition of the Oculus company, the acquisition of the developers of one of VR gaming's biggest hits, Beat Saber, and "Instant Games" which allows simple browser games to be played on the Facebook newsfeed as well as within Messenger conversations.
Once Facebook's cloud streaming service launches, whenever that may be, they will be competing with Google's just-released Stadia, the long-running PlayStation Now service, and Microsoft's xCloud which is currently available on a trial basis. Whether cloud gaming is the next big thing or simply a passing fad, however, is up to you.
Source: Engadget