Facebook plans to launch new games portal in the near future

According to TechCrunch, Facebook is merely weeks away from launching a new gaming portal to make it easier to find and play social games within Facebook.

Earlier this year, Facebook launched an updated games dashboard with improved notifications (e.g., displaying number of game updates next to the next name of the game).

However, giving that 200 million, or 40% of all Facebook users are playing games, it’s still a very small piece of online real estate devoted to Facebook games.

Details are sketchy, but a Facebook spokesperson has confirmed that they are working on something.

The big questions: How will Facebook promote the games portal? What will the criteria for being listed and promoted by Facebook? Will it be editorially controlled or based on Facebook metrics? Will Facebook metrics improve or change? Will how often a games update is viewed and clicked on be a metric to whether Facebook features a game?

Finally, what impact will money have on all of this? Though Facebook could make a killing if they sold ad units to game companies for prime real estate, I don’t think they will go down this route. Instead, they will take a more high road approach.

I do think, however, that they will base their metrics and promotion on who is using Facebook Credits on the system. Though Facebook Credits have been encouraged up to date, a new games portal could usher in the day where Facebook Credits are required to get promotion from Facebook.

Joel Brodie