We recently covered Dutch company Kalydo‘s technology which took a Massively Mulitplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) and turned it into an instantly playable browser-based Facebook game. Now the firm has announced it’s performing an even bigger feat by squeezing all 7GB of successful Windows game Runes of Magic into a fast-loading browser-based game.
The game, which currently requires a hefty download before play, will be accessible from within Facebook starting from Q2 2011.
The idea of converting massively multiplayer online games like Runes of Magic to run within a browser through Facebook is smart one as it opens them up to a vast market of casual gamers who would baulk at the idea of multi-gigabyte downloads. Kalydo is promising the exact same experience within the browser as gamers get from the downloadable version.
Runes of Magic is free to play, with in-game purchases providing a revenue stream. Its Germany-based publisher Frogster expects a “Marked increase” in the number of players once it goes live on Facebook.
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While it’s mainly online-native social gaming companies currently embracing the platform, we’ve seen traditional arcade and console publishers like Capcom and EA make moves towards Facebook gaming. If they start using technology like Kalydo’s, in time you could be tossing that expensive Playstation, Wii or Xbox aside and doing all your gaming in a browser tab.
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