Tech

Facebook’s cloud gaming service is now available to iOS users

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Facebook launched on Friday its cloud gaming service on Apple devices through a web app, that allows users to play games through a mobile device or web browser without having to download them.

The step follows a series of back-and-forth trials with Apple that previously rejected Facebook’s standalone iOS app version of its gaming service. This has led Facebook to follow the footsteps of Microsoft and launch a web app of its young gaming platform for both iPhone and iPad.

“We’ve come to the same conclusion as others: web apps are the only option for streaming cloud games on iOS at the moment,” Facebook’s vice president of gaming, Vivek Sharma, told The Verge.

However, it remains unclear how gamers will find it, since third-party developers, as Facebook, are deprived from directing their app users to websites featuring purchasing mechanisms that aren’t Apple’s own, based on the company’s rules.

While Facebook’s library of web games uses the social network’s custom payments system called Facebook Pay to accept in-game purchases.

Even though Facebook found a solution for its cloud games on iOS, Apple continues to impose limitations that include turning off sounds by default, preventing games from sending push notifications, and depriving users from a powerful graphics experience as it can be in native apps.

Facebook’s cloud games are currently available in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and the service will reach Western and Central Europe by early 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Facebook is not the only victim of “Apple’s tight grip” previously Amazon and Microsoft had to go through the same hoops and finally released Progressive Web Apps for their respective cloud gaming services to get around the App Store.   It’s no secret that Facebook has been trying to find an alternative for iOS users for a while, as the company said in blog post that was published last year “unfortunately, we do not offer cloud games on iOS; we will work on alternative options for iOS.”

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