In a bid to boost its presence in the rapidly booming gaming sector, Facebook announced it has acquired Unit 2 Games.
The acquisition gives Facebook a much stronger footprint in the sector with free-to-play games and, most importantly, the game creation and sharing tool developed by Unit 2, Crayta.
According to Vivek Sharma, VP of Facebook Gaming, the initial concept of Crayta was to “democratize game creation, empowering more people than ever before to make, play and share games, regardless of experience or background.”
Gaming industry experts say that “social gaming” is the next big profit center for the industry. So, it makes perfect sense why Facebook has made this acquisition.
Less than six full months into 2021, the industry has already broken investment, M&A and public offering deal records; totaling over $49 billion. Social gaming companies could help push deal values well over $100 billion by years-end.
The next big wave of revenue could come from within social gaming as it adopts features of eCommerce, knowns as in-game commerce. This is a concept where gamers not only interact and game in a social environment but can conduct transactions of real-world goods and services within games. This will be especially impactful for the “metaverse” gaming sector where gamers are fully immersed in digital worlds, interacting and “living” a digital based life.
With in-game commerce, players can construct digital storefronts, movie theatres, service shops and more. Hawking real goods and services to other gamers in the metaverse will allow for the earning of commissions on sales of real products.
Outside of the metaverse, in the real-world, these real consumer items like clothing, foods and services are a necessity. Selling them in-game is a massive shift as, in essence, gamers could become franchise owners of real businesses while earning real money.
In-Game commerce (social eCommerce gaming) may not only boost industry revenues well past the trillion dollar mark, but could, in fact, become a career choice in the near future.
Read more about Facebook’s Unit 2 acquisition HERE