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Facebook on Tuesday revealed plans to further bolster their position as a games platform by taking on additional responsibilities as promoter and publisher. A new pilot program called Mobile Games Publishing will lead the effort, promoting small- and medium-sized games in exchange for a cut of each title’s revenue.

Given Facebook’s 800-plus million monthly mobile app users, a program like this certainly has a lot of potential for up-and-coming developers. After all, gaming was a key catalyst that led to the company’s strong second quarter results posted last week as it represented seven percent of the 11 percent increase in payments revenue compared to the year-ago quarter.

In a blog post on the matter, the social network said they are invested in the success of these games and in exchange for a revenue share, they will collaborate deeply with developers and help them attract high-quality, long-term players for their games.

Facebook also announced the first 10 developers that will participate in the Mobile Games Publishing program. They are 5th Planet, Brainbow, Certain Affinity, Dragonplay, Gameloft, Gamevil, KiwiGames, Outplay Entertainment, Space Ape and WeMade Entertainment.

Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling said this is a great opportunity for game publishers and developers as well as Facebook itself as gaming is a category that has been strong over the history and growth of the social network.

Shares in Facebook are up nearly 5.5 percent at $37.35 following the news. Meanwhile, share value in troubled online gaming specialist Zynga tumbled more than 1 percent on the announcement, sitting at $2.98 as of writing.


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