On February 6, the Odnoklassniki social network announced the release of the OK Games application. It allows you to run web games from the platform library on the desktop. Including projects made using Flash technology, which is not supported by default by Chrome, Mozilla and Opera browsers.
Why did this happen?
Since the advent of social networks, a significant part of the games for them have been developed on Flash.
In 2016, Google announced plans to disable playback of any content created using this technology in Chrome by default. There were many reasons to disable it: high resource consumption, privacy issues, outdated code.
In 2017, Google realized the promises. Following it, developers of other browsers began to refuse to support the format. In June 2017, Adobe, the creator of the original technology, announced that it also plans to stop developing the technology. He will end its support in 2020.
In a similar situation, the developers of web games found themselves in a difficult position. They were put in a situation in which they should either transfer the project to a new standard – HTML5, or put up with the loss of existing and potential gamers who are not ready to enable Flash support in their browser for the sake of a game project.
It’s easy to add a website if you have the time and desire to figure out how to do it
The most logical compromise solution on the part of social platforms that are unable or unwilling to fight for technology with Google was the release of their own browser platforms that support any required game plug-ins out of the box.
In theory, this solution is advantageous both for developers who do not have to worry about changing the engine, and for platforms that can get more opportunities for content management.
Facebook was the first to release such a solution. In November 2016, Zuckerberg’s social network introduced a beta version of the Gameroom app. Its users can immediately, upon request, play any Flash products presented in the game library of the social network, as well as download native games by analogy with Steam.
“OK Games”
The Odnoklassniki solution solves the same problem – it offers a compromise solution to the problem for developers of old social games, but at the same time aggregates its gaming audience.
“OK Games”, by analogy with Gameroom, is an application downloaded to a desktop that allows you to play any platform products without having to include support for a particular technology. It is built on the basis of another solution Mail.Ru Group – “Game Center Mail.Ru “. This is also a separate distribution. Only it is a hub for Dobrodeev’s multiplayer games.
The main problem – the transfer of traffic from the browser version of Odnoklassniki to OK Games – was solved radically. When starting the game and there is no Flash playback in the browser exceptions, the user is offered to download the application.
This is how the window looks if you have not added the Odnoklassniki website to the exception
According to the press release Mail.Ru However, nothing will change for developers on the new platform: “the conditions for finding the game in the new application and calculating revenue under the revenue sharing scheme are the same as in general on the OK gaming platform.”
Like any compromise solution, the distribution is not a panacea. It will create an ecosystem with which, in the case of a successful scenario, Flash project developers will be able to receive a permanent low – residual income from a project that has lost relevance, but it will not become a solution that will allow the business to grow.
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