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First Facebook Connect-Enabled Social Game for the iPhone Launches
November 13th, 2008
| By Justin Smith | 3 Comments » |
This morning, Zynga launched the first Facebook Connect enabled social game for the iPhone, Live Poker. From the Facebook perspective, Live Poker is interesting for a couple of reasons:
1. Facebook Connect is now Mobile
Live Poker allows users to authenticate with Facebook Connect on their iPhones. After logging in with Facebook Connect, users can find and play poker with their poker buddies from Zynga’s Texas HoldEm app on Facebook. This hints at the power of what’s possible with Facebook Connect for mobile platforms – users can now bring their Facebook identity wherever they go.
2. Virtual Goods Limitations on the iPhone
The differences between Texas HoldEm on Facebook and Live Poker on the iPhone demonstrate the limitations that currently exist for virtual goods transactions on the iPhone platform. Currently, Apple just does not allow it – virtual goods can only be purchased by downloading an entirely new app. This interaction makes it hard for users to conduct frequent transactions, and could be a significant limitation on revenue for game developers that are used to doing direct-to-consumer virtual goods sales inside Facebook.
At the end of the day, Live Poker is a sign of what’s to come with Facebook Connect-enaled iPhone applications.
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November 13th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
This is a good step for Facebook, but working on the IPhone Platform really isn’t that hard.
It’s not that different from working on a small laptop, and a slightly limited browser.
It is a step up by quiet some bit by the Mobile Browsers of the past.
IPhone users use to be able to access Facebook main pages to use their Apps, but with their new designs they inadvertedly made alot of Apps not work anylonger for alot of users, which included those who used IPhones.
http://chris.bourton.us
As an Application Developer for Facebook, and having done Some Mobile Games, working on some more for the IPhone in fact, it doesn’t make me want to make use of this platform to make an entirely new App just to work with mobiles, if it doesn’t normal.
I’d rather just make a mobile standalone game, customised and fully featured to the IPhone, rather than having to work with the nightmare plaform that is FB.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Hey Justin,
Are you sure this is Facebook Connect for the iPhone? It seems like a normal use of the API to me. It makes you add an application on login that scrapes your profile data. I’m not developer, but I thought Facebook Connect promised to be much more seamless and would publish stories back to the newsfeed.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hey Jesse,
I think this is a basic implementation of FB Connect. It should allow for publishing stories to the feed, as well as potentially sending out invites. I’m sure Zynga will continue to add more features with time.