Facebook mobile social games will grow industry at once, CTO expects

When Facebook launched its mobile apps and games platform on iPhone and iPad, we were admittedly confused. But after Facebook CTO Bret Taylor (pictured) spoke with mocoNews, we have a better idea of what Facebook is getting at with "Project Spartan." According to Taylor, Facebook hopes to go 100 percent cross platform with Facebook Mobile through the mobile web, but its master plan goes deeper still.

"It really addresses some of the areas I've heard a lot of concerns about from mobile developers, and it plays to our strengths," Taylor told mocoNews. "For startups, it's very difficult to get their apps discovered. They have a honeymoon period in the app stores where they might be in a top 10 list and get a lot of downloads, but once that honeymoon period is over, discovery is very difficult. By integrating with these social channels in mobile, they can get discovered in really organic ways."

Facebook looks to bring the discoverability of Facbook games and apps to mobile. Sure, Facebook has the support of some major game creators with HTML5-based versions of Words with Friends, FarmVille and even wooga's new Magic Land. But at the moment, users have to search for these apps through Facebook's iOS app or mobile web presence--not exactly an ideal method for discovery.

It sounds like Taylor and Facebook look to grow the mobile and social games industries all at once across all platforms including Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. To do that, Facebook is encouraging more developers to create HTML5 or native mobile app versions of their social games that Facebook Mobile can redirect to, which is about the only way we see this method working. However, with game shares (at least for non-gamers to see) almost entirely in the Ticker--which doesn't exist on mobile--where do the new social gamers come in?

Facebook urges game makers to ditch Flash, go HTML5

Here's your proverbial nail in coffin for the Flash versus HTML5 debate. All Things Digital reports that Facebook plans to spread the good news of HTML5 to all of the social game developers living within its cushy walls. The norm today for social games is to be developed using Adobe's Flash, which many peg for being a resource hog that isn't cross platform. (My laptop's processor and cooling fan can attest to the former.) This means that developers like Zynga can't simply take FarmVille for Facebook and throw it on the iPhone--that version was built from the ground up.

But no more. The former CTO of Second Life-creator Linden Lab, Cory Ondrejka, gave a lecture at Facebook headquarters yesterday proclaiming the benefits of making the switch to HTML5. Now a member of the Facebook team, Ondrejka wrote this in a blog post:

    With wide adoption and industry support, HTML5 will transform desktop and mobile gaming, creating amazing user experiences that are only a link away. Already, over 125 million people visit Facebook using HTML5 capable browsers just from their mobile phone, and that number skyrockets when we add in desktop browsers. The future is clear.

With HTML5, the next step for website development that can also handle pretty intense game creation, making several versions of the same social game would be a thing of the past. In fact, Zynga's recent release of Mafia Wars: Atlantic City across nearly all smartphones was thanks to HTML5. Using this fresh technology, it's possible that social games could look no different if played on Facebook through a computer or a smartphone. Ondrejka admitted that HTML5 still has a ways to go when rendering games. Despite this, he wrote "We want to help," referring to Facebook's mission to getting as many developers on the HTML5 bandwagon as possible. And that means more social games in more places for us.