Facebook to Launch Steam-like Desktop Client for Games

There was a time when social games like Candy Crush Saga, Words with Friends and Farmville were all the rage on Facebook, and the site was seen as the place to be for casual gaming. However, the rise of the smartphone saw more people turning to their second screens for simple gaming fixes.

It would be unfair to Facebook to say that they aren't successful in the social gaming arena nowadays, as the company can still boast over 650million users actively engaged in the games. That figure used to be over a billion though, a stark drop from previous highs.

With the purchase of Oculus last year, Facebook made it clear that they wanted to remain a major player in gaming, however the high priced VR units aren't going to be winning them too many customers in the casual market. So the company are going on the offensive with a new platform designed to boost player numbers.

Dubbed Facebook Games Arcade in testing, but now simply known as "the Facebook PC Gaming PC Platform", the software is a rival to services like Steam and GOG. Offering traditional social games, alongside potentially more serious PC titles, the service offers a way of gaming through Facebook without the usual distractions of the timeline and other associated content

The company have been working with the creators of the Unity engine to integrate this new platform into the popular engine, they're hoping that this integration will tempt more developers to them. With a full desktop client and the Oculus platform behind them, could Facebook knock Valve from their perch at the top of the digital distribution food chain? Only time will tell.