Facebook brings mobile games to Messenger app

Sky seeks to shake up UK mobile market with flexible data plans

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 30, (Agencies): Facebook on Tuesday unveiled “Instant Games” allowing users of the world’s biggest social network to play from its Messenger application or directly on their news feeds.

The new games effort could be a step toward eventually monetizing Messenger, which now has more than one billion users.

“This new games experience allows people to easily discover, share, and play games without having to install new apps,” said Facebook product manager Alissa Ju in a blog post announcing the initiative.

Instant Games is launching in 30 countries with 17 titles available including “Pac-Man” from Bandai Namco, Taito’s “Space Invaders,” Zynga’s “Words with Friends” and King Digital’s “Shuffle Cats Mini.”

While Facebook has previously been home to “social” games like Zynga’s “FarmVille,” this effort aims at smartphone users and also works with Messenger, its fast-growing communications platform.

“The primary way that we expect people to be interacting with Instant Games is through Messenger, especially at first,” said Leo Olebe, director of global games partnerships at Facebook.

Olebe said the initiative is the first time games will be “a platform inside of Messenger” and the first time Facebook has directly put games on mobile devices.

The concept is similar to that of “Instant Articles,” which allows faster loading of news stories by hosting them on the powerful servers of Facebook instead of linking to a separate news site.

While Facebook ad revenues have been surging, the company has warned its ad growth is likely to slow, but Olebe nevertheless said there will be no immediate effort to draw revenue from the games.

“Right now it’s still early in the process, monetization will come later down the road,” he said, adding that Facebook wants “to drive the engagement in the overall experience.”

Instant Games will allow users to invite others and share results and scores, but has controls to prevent people from getting overwhelmed with requests to play.

“The games are not designed to reward people for getting an increasing number of

folks to play,” he said.

Sky said it would enter the UK mobile market with a SIM-only deal that allows data allowances to roll over each month, and offers free calls to the 11 million British households that take its TV services.

It was “time to shake up” the mobile market, particularly in data, where many customers paid for more than they used because they were worried about exceeding their allowance, the pay-TV group said on Tuesday.

Sky is the last of Britain’s big four broadband providers to offer mobile to its customers, giving it the full “quad play” offer, which also includes TV and fixed-line telecoms.

Stephen van Rooyen, Sky’s UK and Ireland chief executive, said the company had asked more than 30,000 potential customers what they wanted from a mobile service, and more flexibility on data was top of the list.

“We’ve designed it based on what people told us they want — it’s easy, flexible and transparent and it puts the customer in control,” he said

He declined to give any targets for customer sign ups, but said Sky households had on average two mobile contracts each, giving a potential market of about 23 million.

BT bought EE, the biggest mobile network, earlier this year, while Virgin Media uses EE’s network to offer its own branded mobile and TalkTalk is switching from Vodafone to Telefonica’s O2.

Sky is also piggybacking on the O2 network, although it will issue its own SIM cards and handle all parts of the customer relationship.

Mobile customers will not receive a combined bill for all Sky services, however, as the company said customers preferred to keep an individual relationship with their mobile provider.

Sky is offering three packages of 1GB, 3GB and 5GB of data a month priced at 10 pounds, 15 pounds and 20 pounds, respectively, with free calls and texts for its TV customers.

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LOS ANGELES: Get ready to bounce with Mario in a whole new, in-real-life way: Nintendo is teaming with Universal Parks and Resorts to bring video-game-themed areas to parks in Japan, Orlando and Hollywood, the companies announced Tuesday.

Under the deal, the companies promise to create “larger-than-life” Nintendo experiences that will be “expansive, immersive and interactive” and are set to include multiple attractions, shops and restaurants.

Each Universal theme park — Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood — will announce details of its specific Nintendo areas at a later date. The Nintendo areas will open separately over the next several years. “We’re always looking for the next great idea and the next great place to take people, and Nintendo fit the bill — I mean, it’s a natural,” Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative, said in announcing the deal.

Characters and elements from Nintendo’s globally popular “Super Mario Bros.” video game will be prominently featured in the parks, with the companies saying that “Mario and all his friends are there to pull you into a brand-new world.” “There will be something for everyone - regardless of their age or gaming experience level,” Universal Parks and Resorts and Nintendo said in a joint statement.