It’s been a big week for Facebook announcements. Yesterday, games publisher Electronic Arts revealed a partnership deal that’ll see it using Facebook’s virtual online currency. A five-year agreement will involve Facebook Credits being used as the only payment method within EA games on Facebook. With both companies looking towards a mobile future, it’ll be interesting to see how this partnership develops.
Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager for EA Interactive, said “Since gaming has emerged as the most popular category of applications on Facebook, the natural next step is for EA to broaden its relationship with Facebook and its 500 million users. Our goal is to make the best games tailored specifically to the platforms on which people want to play.”
And today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a special Mobile Event that revealed a number of new Facebook features for mobile users. After revealing that 200 million people worldwide regularly access Facebook via mobile devices – and delivering a firm ‘no’ to the idea of Facebook building a mobile phone – he launched three new features: a single sign-on that allows Facebook users to enter a password and username once for access to a number of different websites, an open API for Facebook location logins (allowing them to be shared with other web services) and an opportunity for businesses to offer local promotional deals via Facebook Places.