The biggest tech companies in the world are all preparing for cloud gaming, with a big push coming from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Sony and Nvidia. Now, Facebook is looking to get a piece of the emerging market too, starting with the acquisition of PlayGiga, a Spanish cloud gaming company.
Currently, PlayGiga offers game streaming services across Spain, Italy, Argentina and Chile. Rumours about the company being acquired by Facebook began last week and today, Facebook confirmed it in a statement of its own. We don't have official confirmation on how much the acquisition deal was worth, but rumours point towards Facebook paying €70 million.
We’re thrilled to welcome @PlayGigaOficial to the Facebook Gaming team. We’ll decline further c☁️mment for now.
— ⛄️ Facebook Gaming ? (@FacebookGaming) December 18, 2019
The Facebook Gaming Twitter account also confirmed the news today, welcoming PlayGiga to the team while teasing further cloud gaming news will arrive in the future.
PlayGiga is on the smaller end of cloud gaming providers, focusing on just a few select companies. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Google already have worldwide database networks set up to deliver their services. With that in mind, there is still plenty of additional investment to be made before Facebook can re-tool and launch a service that can stand up to the likes of Project xCloud or Stadia.
KitGuru Says: I'm sure next year we'll also be hearing more about Amazon's own plans for cloud game streaming. Currently, Google, Microsoft and Amazon make up the biggest cloud service providers in the world, so there is already a hierarchy in place, so it will all come down to who can offer the better service/business model. Do you guys think Facebook has a chance to crack into the cloud gaming market?