Facebook fights back Google+ games with new gaming features

On Thursday, Facebook at a game developers event in Palo Alto, California, announced that new features with better gaming experience, will be available to users. It also announced a new policy on ways developers can market their games on the website.

Earlier, Google had declared that it would start rolling out games on Google+, which included popular games such as 'Zynga Poker' and 'Angry Birds.'

According to experts, the recent move showed that Facebook, even with 750 million users compared with 25 million of Google+, is taking the Google challenge seriously.

New changes in Facebook

New feature includes full screen mode and a Game Ticker, which changes the Facebook chat window into a newsfeed that display friends game activity, achievements and high scores, stated Facebook's Jared Morgenstern on the company's official blog late Friday.

The updates on the new ticker called “stories,” which can be clicked by the user to play the game with their friends. User can also hide stories that appear on the ticker.

In his blog post Morgenstern wrote, "You can now control who can see these stories for each individual app in your Settings."

"If you want friends to see you're playing one game but not another, you can change that. You're also able to limit visibility directly from the ticker by clicking 'X' on a story to remove it."

Another feature allows user to bookmark their favourite apps or games for quick access from the news feed.

The blog post stated, "To add a new favorite, click the menu next to the bookmark. You can also rearrange, remove, and edit settings from the same menu."

Games such as 'CityVille,' 'Zoo World,' 'Monster World,' and 'Mystery Manor' will soon have full-screen option, announced Facebook.

Games for Google+ less intrusive

Google+ started offering 16 games from publishers like Zynga, Rovio and Wooga.

However, according to Vic Gundorta, senior vice president of engineering for Google, stated that unlike Facebook, Google+ games will be less intrusive.

In a blog post Gundorta wrote, “Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.”

He added, “Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”