Introducing New Distribution Model for Instant Games

Today, we are announcing that we will be creating a path for developers of Instant Games (IG) on Facebook to launch their games directly to people on Facebook, even if the game is in the early stages of development and historically would have been blocked by the Quality Guidelines. We'll also change the way games are distributed across our organic discovery experiences.

Here is what this will mean in simple terms. Today, new IGs coming onto our platform go through Quality Review, and those that pass are ready to be launched by the developer. When they do so, those titles are immediately available across our organic surfaces. That process is changing in the following ways:

• We are introducing the Play Lab tier, which will allow games that previously may not have passed Quality Review to go live on our platform in a way that allows them to acquire users, collect feedback, and experiment.
• We are also creating a new distribution tier for higher-quality and high-performing games — Play Tab — and defining requirements for this tier. To be eligible for the Play Tab tier, games must meet two requirements:
  • First, we will limit Play Tab to games that offer experiences that most represent the values and practices put forth in the Quality Guidelines.
  • Second, we are introducing the Platform Quality Criteria (PQC), which is a metrics-driven threshold that tells us players are interested in the game.
• In order to promote a safe, secure and positive experience, all games on platform are required to comply with our policies, including Developer Policies and Platform Terms. Repeated or egregious violations of Quality Guidelines can also still result in your title being blocked from launch, or suspended or removed from the platform.

This is what will happen with respect to organic distribution within each of these tiers:

• Play Tab: IGs in the Play Tab tier will be distributed across our organic discovery surfaces and available for promotion in editorial units. (An editorial unit is a consistent fixed space in the Play Tab where the game icon and description are displayed.)
• Play Lab: IGs in the Play Lab tier will be hosted on the Facebook Play platform, but will not be distributed via our organic discovery or editorial surfaces. Play Lab IGs will continue to be able to create a game page and grow their player base via paid user acquisition, social discovery, and community building. As before, all IGs will be findable via Search within the Facebook app.

We are excited about adopting a model that will help gamers on Facebook more easily discover and engage with the highest-quality games on our platform, while still allowing for a larger variety of games to be hosted on our platform and grow via social and paid discovery methods. Overall, we believe that these changes will create more opportunity for developer partners as play on Facebook continues to grow.

To read more detail on Instant Game Quality Guidelines and Platform Quality Criteria, check the link below.