Facebook Messenger's Instant Games to Include Monetization for Developers

Facebook is giving developers the opportunity to monetize Instant Games on messenger.

Facebook first launched Instant Games to selected users last November. Instant games is Facebook’s HTML5 cross-platform gaming experience available on messenger as well as both mobile and web news feed.

Months later, Facebook launched instant games globally to its 1.3 billion users on messenger adding new features and games and now the social media giant is testing ways for developers to monetize their games.

This move, we believe, should attract more developers to start creating higher-quality games for the platform whereas before there wasn’t any solid way for developers to monetize their games.

In a post shared on the messenger blog last week, Mike Weingert, product manager at Facebook wrote:

“Since our launch, the platform continues to evolve with more games and features for developers to build flexible, rich gameplay. This includes leaderboards and tournament support, visually engaging and customizable game messages and CTA buttons, along with the option to introduce meaningful re-engagement capabilities with game bots. Today, we’re kicking off the next phase of the Instant Games platform’s evolution by rolling out tests of interstitial and rewarded video ads with select game developers.”

The move is currently in a testing phase. For now, Facebook will rely on its audience network to deliver ads during gameplay. Players of games like Blackstorm’s Everwing and FRVR’s Basketball FRVR can expect to start seeing some ads in their gameplay sessions.

Additionally, Facebook is also testing in-app purchases as another way for developers to make money. The company is looking to improve the monetization efforts with the results of these initial tests.

Mike Weingert further wrote: “Based on the results from these initial tests, we’ll begin to enable interstitial and rewarded video ads with additional developers over the coming weeks, as well as further optimize the ad platform. We will also unlock more developer tools for measurement and ad optimization. Opening these capabilities will eventually allow developers to generate revenue from their titles and invest more in further development.”

For now, instant games remains a closed beta platform. Developers interested in joining can sign up here.

Do you think instant games monetization is a good start for Facebook’s overall goal of monetizing messenger?