Facebook has started rolling out Instant Games on Messenger globally for its 1.2 billion users. The Instant Games was first announced in the US in November, and is now globally available with 50 titles including Pac-Man and 8 Ball Pool.
The company says that Instant Games allows developers to enable rich gameplay experience by creating unique games across categories like turn-based games, leaderboards and tournaments. Facebook also notes that developers can take advantage of game bots to re-engage players by offering new game options and updates on the leaderboards. "When developers start to take advantage of these new capabilities everyone wins with more dynamic and engaging gaming experiences," wrote Andrea Vaccari, Product Manager, Messenger in a blog post.
Facebook says Zynga's Words with Friends will be one of the first games to take advantage of these gameplay features. Depending upon location, Messenger users will have up to 50 game titles to play at the time of launch. Instant Games on Messenger is rolling out worldwide for both Android and iOS users starting today. For now, there won't be ads or in-game purchases within Instant Games platform.
In addition to Instant Games, Facebook is also launching the new Messenger features previewed at company's annual F8 developer conference. Facebook is also making changes to Gameroom, its Steam competitor developed in collaboration with Unity. Gameroom supports PC-optimised games and is getting a new Games Feed.