Facebook’s cloud game service goes online on iOS platform

After months of private testing, Facebook’s cloud game is officially launched. On the iPhone, users can access web applications, which can be launched in some applications. This may violate the relevant policies of the Apple App Store. Facebook users can access Facebook’s cloud gaming platform by visiting a specific URL and adding it to their home screen.

Once the bookmark is added, it will launch a dedicated Safari window, displaying Facebook’s game web application in full screen. The Verge believes that this Facebook cloud gaming platform is in a difficult situation: it cannot promote web applications in Facebook applications, nor can it run these games natively on Facebook. Apple requires all games of streaming services to be added to the App Store, otherwise, the service must only exist in web applications.

Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s vice president of gaming, said: We and others have come to the same conclusion: Web apps are currently the only option for streaming cloud games on iOS. As many people have pointed out, Apple Related policies do not allow cloud gaming applications to appear on the App Store.

The staff of AppleInsider has tested some games. Some games refuse to launch, while others will direct you to the Facebook app. These games do not seem to be downloaded to your device but are circulated in the form of videos, which you can control with touch input. Users who open the Facebook application will see a dedicated game area added to the interface. We found that Angry Birds can run in the Facebook application, but not in the web application.

Adding web games to the Facebook app seems to directly violate the guidelines of the Apple App Store. If the gameplay is in-app video streaming, it violates Apple’s requirement that each game has a separate app store list. If it’s arbitrary code loading–it doesn’t seem to be–it would violate the regulations. It is not yet known whether this is intentional by Facebook or app developers or is some kind of confusion.

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