Facebook Introduces The Gameroom: A Potential Steam Competitor

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Facebook released its Gameroom software, which will essentially move games off Facebook and onto a semi-independent platform to improve performance and encourage game development.

Gameroom was developed primarily by Facebook, but with aid from Unity. You can create games directly for Gameroom with the Unity 5.0 SDK or newer, as well as the Facebook Unity SDK. After you create a game for Gameroom, you can upload the software to Facebook for others to download and play. Facebook currently limits games to 500MB in size, though.

Older versions of the Unity SDK can also be used to create games for Gameroom, but they require you to publish the games in WebGL.

Native Gameroom games use the familiar Windows.exe file type, and could technically run without Gameroom. For these files, Gameroom essentially functions in the same way that Steam or GoG does, in that it manages game downloads and installations. Gameroom can also run Flash and HTML5 clients for games hosted on Facebook or independent servers.

Although Flash and HTML5 games will continue to be available for you to play on Gameroom and on Facebook itself, Facebook is attempting to lure developers into porting the game over to Gameroom and a .exe file. Facebook said that creating games for Gameroom using Unity software takes less time than HTML5, and it also provides performance and debugging benefits.

It should also be noted that Gameroom is technically capable of hosting full PC games like we are accustomed to seeing on Steam or GoG. Right now, the software is rather young and games are limited to a rather small amount of data. The software currently targets people that enjoy the online Facebook games, which are unlikely to need more than 500MB of data. By simply removing the size limit, however, there isn’t anything to stop Facebook from selling AAA titles through Gameroom in the future.

Gameroom is now available for download from Facebook.

Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • problematiq
    It's difficult for a steam alt to popup. As it is people are more willing to pay an extra 5-10$ for the same game to purchase it on steam and keep their existing library in the same place, as oppose to using 4-5 applications.
    Reply
  • canadianvice
    Filthy casuals xD

    That's all this is going to be, you must know that.
    Reply
  • sixto1972
    It wishes it could replace steam. Oh boy... farmville...... right.....
    Reply
  • d_kuhn
    Thats right... you too can now play every lame mobile game on your PC... just install yet another poorly designed Facebook app that will conveniently link into every aspect of your life in order to "improve your poor quality mobile game playing experience". "Click Fruit at 1080p!!", "Chuck disgruntled Avians in crisp 4k!", the Facebook gaming app can be yours TODAY!

    Filthy casuals xD
    Reply
  • canadianvice
    18816592 said:
    Thats right... you too can now play every lame mobile game on your PC... just install yet another poorly designed Facebook app that will conveniently link into every aspect of your life in order to "improve your poor quality mobile game playing experience". "Click Fruit at 1080p!!", "Chuck disgruntled Avians in crisp 4k!", the Facebook gaming app can be yours TODAY!

    Filthy casuals xD

    Somehow, Disgruntled Avians is a much funnier name.
    Reply
  • sillynilly
    I don't use Facebook, hence I won't use this. Steam is my friend.
    Reply
  • Dikyashi
    As much as i or the others who prefer steam over uplay and origin.I don't see this competing with steam in the first place.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    Hopefully, the ShovelWare devlopers will migrate to this and stay off of Steam. If only Steam would give me an option to filter out freemium, f2p, etc.
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    18815776 said:
    It's difficult for a steam alt to popup. As it is people are more willing to pay an extra 5-10$ for the same game to purchase it on steam and keep their existing library in the same place, as oppose to using 4-5 applications.

    Too bad that isn't actually the case. As you still have to install crap like Uplay, Social Club, &c to play games from many developers. Steam should play hardball with these developers and insist all game tracking, registration, DRM, awards, &c be performed through the Steam platform.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    18818751 said:
    18815776 said:
    It's difficult for a steam alt to popup. As it is people are more willing to pay an extra 5-10$ for the same game to purchase it on steam and keep their existing library in the same place, as oppose to using 4-5 applications.

    Too bad that isn't actually the case. As you still have to install crap like Uplay, Social Club, &c to play games from many developers. Steam should play hardball with these developers and insist all game tracking, registration, DRM, awards, &c be performed through the Steam platform.

    I have games on uplay and origin, quite a few actually. In the end I just end up ignoring these games and go back to steam.
    Reply