Facebook is adding support for in-app purchases to its Instant
Games platform, the company announced during a session on gaming at its F8
developer conference this afternoon. The feature will allow game developers to
add another form of monetization beyond advertising to their games on select
platforms, but not on iOS.
Instead, support for
in-app purchases will be available to Instant Games on Android and on
Facebook.com on the web.
First launched in
2016, Facebook opened up Instant Games to all developers last month. The
platform allows developers to build mobile-friendly games using HTML5 that work
across both Facebook and Messenger. The idea is to give game developers access
to another sizable platform for their work, in addition to the existing app
stores run by Apple and Google.
Facebook has had
in-app purchases on its roadmap for Instant Games for some time, and began
testing the feature with select developers around six months ago.
Similar to the app
stores, the revenue share model for Instant Games is 70/30 on Facebook.com.
However, on mobile, the games will follow the in-app billing terms from each
platform, the company notes. That means purchases made in games running on
Android devices; the 30 percent revenue share will apply after the standard
mobile platform revenue share – aka Google’s own 70/30 cut.
That’s not ideal, of
course. And all the hands in the pie may lead to game developers pricing their
in-app purchases higher, as a result.
Facebook seems to
acknowledge this concern in its blog post announcement, saying: “Our primary
goal is to build [in-app purchases] in a way so that our developer partners can
sustain and grow, and we’ll continue to evaluate rev/share with that goal in
mind.”
Facebook wouldn’t
confirm if or when support for in-app purchases is coming to iOS.
In addition to helping
developers generate revenue outside of using ads in their games, in-app
purchases in games could prove beneficial to Facebook as well. The company’s
payment revenue has dwindled over the years, with things like Messenger
payments never really seeing significant attention. Plus, Facebook made it
possible for third-parties like PayPal to operate over Messenger, which signaled
its disinterest in the payments space in general.
In-app purchases in
games turn things around, a bit.
The submission process
for in-app purchases will open up to developers on May 7, allowing them to
implement the monetization features on Android and the web. In the meantime,
Facebook is offering documentation about the feature here.
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