Inside Social Games

In September of 2008, Raptr made its first appearance connecting game players across a multitude of platforms. However, the social discovery company has just added yet another, and quite possibly its most significant connection yet: The integration of Facebook Connect.

Now, account holders can sign-in using their Facebook accounts. Doing so will allow them to connect with Facebook friends that also use Raptr. Just like with Facebook games themselves, users can easily send invitations to their Facebook friends in an effort to increase the amount of their Facebook friends who also use Raptr. Conveniently enough, the addition also allows for non-account holders to sign up for Raptr using their Facebook accounts without the need for creating new usernames and passwords.

In the end, however, the best feature comes from publishing what your friends are currently playing into the Facebook News Feed. We have seen this with the previous versions of Raptr, as users share what badges, achievements, and rewards they earn. They could also recommended games. Now, with Facebook Connect, the players for Halo 3 can now see what players for Mafia Wars are doing.

This marriage of platforms is advantageous to both users and developers alike. Not only does it connect more people across more platforms, but it effectively allows for viral growth for many games. Already, Raptr supports a couple thousand games, all of which can be broadcast through Instant Messenger (IM), Twitter, Friendfeed, and now Facebook. Since players can see each other’s playtime as well as their reviews, the potential distributional growth of games connected to Raptr should grow even more.