Facebook has announced that it is working with Unity Technologies on a video game platform for the PC, which will likely end up challenging Valve's massively popular Steam platform.
The collaboration will help developers create new games that can be exported and published on the social network. Unity developers will be given new ways to engage Facebook's user base, which currently stands at over 650 million.
"Our mission is to give people the power to discover, play and share the games they love with the people they care about," said Facebook global games partnerships director Leo Olebe in a joint statement with Unity, adding that it is great to be working with the top game development platform in the world.
Unity, which is the biggest global development platform for the development of all kinds of video games, including 2D, 3D, AR and VR titles, will be integrating support for Facebook. This will allow developers to quickly push out the games they create to the social network's millions of users. Previously, developers had to apply a more code-intensive Facebook SDK to bring Unity-based games onto the social network.
It was also revealed that Unity is opening testing for the closed-alpha build of the development platform's version 5.4 that includes the new export to Facebook function. Interested developers can send in their applications until the end of the month.
Unity gives developers an easier way of creating video games by letting them utilize the platform's established software engine rather than having to build the same components themselves from scratch. The partnership with Facebook, along with the promised PC gaming platform, will also be making it easier for developers to get gamers to play their titles.
Upon its completion, the new platform will likely look to challenge Steam, the PC gaming service created by Valve Software. Steam currently has almost 200 million active users, making it the biggest video game platform in the world with more users than the combined audience of Sony's PlayStation 4, Microsoft's Xbox One and the PC.
A representative for Facebook confirmed that it is working on a stand-alone application similar to Steam. Other acquired details on the project include the fact that it will run on different types of computers and provide a video game environment free from distractions such as Facebook's News Feed. The platform will support casual Facebook games such as Farmville; mobile games that have been ported from Android and iOS; and more hardcore games typically seen on Steam and consoles. Users will be able to search through the platform for games they're interested in, and Facebook will split revenue with game publishers.
No release date has so far been mentioned for the platform, with no announcement on games or partnerships with publishers.
Unity recently raised $181 million in a Series C Funding round, with the proceeds to be used to further improve its technology.
