Blizzard Entertainment and Facebook are teaming up to give players more ways to connect with friends and give streamers a new way to show their goods, according to a Blizzard press release. Starting in July, Facebook Login and Facebook’s Live API will be integrated into all Blizzard games, including World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Diablo III, Starcraft II, and recent megahit Overwatch. Players will be able to sign up for and log into the games via their Facebook accounts, adding new social options that use the social media platform for sharing, viewing, and direct discussion of content.
With Live API, players will be able to livestream their Blizzard gaming sessions right onto their Facebook timelines. Friends can subscribe and receive notifications when new streams have gone up.
“Blizzard games are best when played with friends, so it’s important to us to provide our players with features and services that make it easy and fun to share their experiences with each other,” said Gio Hunt, executive vice president of corporate operations at Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games, and we look forward to sharing further details on our plans as development progresses.”
Since two of the largest names in social networking and gaming have joined forces, Blizzard has been hosting livestreams on Facebook. The first series featured Heroes of the Dorm sessions, collegiate tournaments involving the team brawler Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard also recently livestreamed an Overwatch launch event.
“Blizzard has a passionate community of players, and an incredible track record for launching innovative and high-quality gaming experiences,” said Facebook’s global games partnerships director, Leo Olebe. “Our collaboration on Overwatch demonstrates Facebook’s commitment to partnering with AAA game companies, while further empowering Blizzard gamers to connect and share the content they’re most passionate about with the friends they play with around the world.”
To prepare for the launch of Overwatch, Facebook and Blizzard collaborated on a social media marketing blitz using Facebook and Instagram. This includes Carousel ads, Canvas, and Instagram Marquee. You can’t beat the targeting capabilities of these social platforms, and the collaboration has helped Blizzard showcase the game to an audience that included Facebook’s 1.65 billion users and Instagram’s 400 million. Over 650 million Facebook users play games while connected to the network across web, mobile, and console every month.
