SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 20 ― Social network and data giant Facebook has taken a big step towards joining Google, Xbox and PlayStation through the acquisition of Spanish cloud-gaming company PlayGiga.

Having already launched in select South American, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern countries, PlayGiga is now part of Facebook in a deal understood to be worth €70 million (RM322 million), according to Spanish business and finance newspaper Cinco Días.

With a partnership library covering over 300 games, PlayGiga had already forged distribution partnerships in Argentina and Chile, Qatar, Italy and its native Spain.

It used proprietary technology to provide low-latency game streaming and in 2019 had been positioning itself to take advantage of 5G data connections as pertaining to mobile and virtual reality gaming.

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PlayGiga shut down its telco product, WADE, on December 3.

Facebook had previously made a high-profile entry into enthusiast gaming in 2014 through the purchase of virtual reality company Oculus VR in a deal valued at US$2.3 billion.

More recently, it provided a centralised focus for video game content on the Facebook platform ― videos, livestreams, groups and its selection of Instant Games ― through a Facebook Gaming Tab, which debuted in March 2019.

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In November 2019, Facebook subsidiary Oculus Studios announced the acquisition of Beat Games, the studio behind standard-setting VR title Beat Saber.

Facebook joins Google, PlayStation, and Xbox in making public its preparations for cloud gaming services.

Sony's PlayStation division acquired Gaikai in 2012 in a US$380 million deal, subsequently launching cloud gaming subscription service PlayStation Now in 2014; Xbox is developing Project xCloud, anticipated for use with its Xbox Series X consoles debuting Holiday 2020; Google Stadia began a staggered launch in November 2019.

PC gaming platform Steam took a different tack with the November 2019 introduction of a Remote Play Together feature, which lets people play local multiplayer games over the internet, with just one player required to own the title and the rest joining in for free. ― AFP-Relaxnews