Facebook hits back over Google+ Games

Facebook - puts on its game face
Facebook - puts on its game face

Facebook has revealed that it has bolstered its gaming service, after Google announced it has also begun offering games through its social network, Google+.

Facebook has had massive success with the gaming part of the site. Companies such as Zynga has used Facebook to make their billions.

At one point, Zynga's FarmVille was said to have more people on it than use Twitter.

Google has also dabbled in in-browser gaming but it only announced the first lot of games to hit Google+ this week. These include Angry Birds and Zynga Poker.

Let the games begin

In a blog, which coincided with the Google+ Games launch, Facebook said: "When you're playing games, you'll now see a separate stream of your friends' game activity, scores and achievements in a ticker.

"The best way to find new games is through friends, and now you'll have more opportunities to see what they're playing.

"Maybe your best friend has started playing Sims; your roommate has a new high score on PacMan; or your mom and sister have taken up Words With Friends. Simply click on a story and you can start playing the game yourself."

It also noted that it had added a bigger screen and you can now bookmark your favourite games to play later.

These additions are more tweaks than major overhauls but the timing of them is significant.

Facebook sees Google+ as a rival and it seems that with the search engine's games announcement one of the people.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.