Streaming has become one of the most popular and accessible forms of entertainment. From watching people react to certain scenes in movies and series to “mukbang”, a form of entertainment where you watch someone eat food while they talk to the viewers. The most popular type of streaming is gaming. Watching people play video games is one of the main reasons why streaming has become very popular to date. From watching gamers play newly released games to watching them attempt to break a world record by speedrunning a game with insane precision on every input they make, streaming games will always have something different.
The most dominant streaming service is a platform called Twitch which was the first breakout platform to capitalize on the streaming platform. Multiple companies have now since entered the ring and one of those companies is Facebook with their platform called Facebook Gaming. Facebook Gaming is dedicated only to gamers who want to stream on Facebook’s platform while interacting with their Facebook friends and fans. Last year, Facebook released a dedicated app for Facebook Gaming that focuses on finding streams that cater to your favorite games and it can also recommend streams that cater to your interests and searches. Also, there is a feature that is unique to the app is that it allows you to play quick games like Draw Something, Battleship, Tetris, etc. with your friends.
Checking on the app’s streaming capabilities, as of the latest version, ver. 155.0.0.33.118, the app does not have the ability to change the video resolution and can lead to some streams being blurry that it can be distracting for the viewer. This could be easily patched in the future but based on previous reports, it used to have a resolution setting but was removed for an unknown reason. It is also missing several features that are prominent in its other competitors such as allowing the stream to played in the background, allow the viewer to watch the video with picture-in-picture. Please note that this is just from the side of the viewer and not from a streamer.
As of now, I do not recommend the Facebook Gaming app for watching streams as its current competitors such as Youtube Gaming and Twitch offer better quality of life in terms of watching streams. Facebook is a relatively new platform only being active for around 3 years as opposed to Twitch’s 10-year tenure and Youtube Gaming’s 6-year tenure. It still has a long way to go in terms of improving its quality of life for the viewer and hoping that in the future, the app does address those missing features and be able to offer something unique to be able to draw viewers to the Facebook Gaming platform
Score: 2.5/5
Photo credit: Libby Penner ? IG: @libby_penner / Sean Do ? IG: @everywheresean
Gabriel Craig Hernal Rivera
Gabriel Craig Hernal Rivera is an Engineer. A graduate of De LaSalle University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering. He currently works at Accenture U.S. in Metro San Francisco as a Training and Development Specialist. Outside of work, Gabriel enjoys exercising, watching various TV series programs, and especially video games. He also enjoys watching videos regarding Game Design, Game Theories, and in-depth reviews on video games to get a better understanding of the current trends in gaming.
