Crytek is taking on Steam, Skype, Onlive and Facebook in one swift fell swoop with the upcoming launch of a social platform called GFACE. Yes, that's really it's name thus far, geared for multiple devices, not just the PC, following OnLive's footsteps of supporting tablets and smartphones.
"Our mission is to design an innovative high quality social media publishing service. We are a small team with big ideas, but backed up by a well known critically acclaimed game studio: Crytek," the GFACE team states on the website. "We share not only technology and vision, but the commitment to deliver the highest possible quality."
GFACE will be based around friends lists and feature live video that will be embedded within the framework. It will also feature a drag-and-drop invite system similar to Battlefield's Battlelog, and a plug-in that allows users to stream PC games directly to their browser -- no external client or game installs required.
In sample images, GFACE shows one player on the PC playing in FPS mode as the soldier -- a live webcam feed of a tablet-based "commander" is seen to the left of the game screen. The Commander, playing the same game, also has a live webcam feed of the soldier. The mobile phone owner serving as air support doesn't see any live video feed, but merely the game screen. GFACE will consist of casual 2D games, casual 3D games. core 2D games and core 3D games.
In addition to the game streaming, users will be able to access GFACE friends lists and functionality while watching media, borrowing from Xbox LIVE. There are also tons of features similar to what we use on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter including Interest Groups and People Groups. To see a video demo of GFACE's Dropbar, head here.
GFACE is currently in closed beta, so stay tuned for more information. It's highly unlikely this will be a Facebook killer due to its seemingly overall gaming theme, but more of a contender to OnLive, Steam and others trying to establish a Facebook-like gamer community while also offering digital purchases.
