Facebook Gaming announced today that it has launched cloud streaming gaming on Facebook, available through browsers and apps.

Rival cloud streaming gaming services already include Google Stadia, the recently announced Amazon Luna, and the Microsoft service formerly known as xCloud (now part of Game Pass Ultimate). (now part of Game Pass Ultimate). But Facebook's new service will not get its own grand-sounding banner, but will be an otherwise unnamed facet of Facebook Gaming This is not the only time Facebook is breaking with its cloud gaming tradition.

Jason Rubin, Facebook's VP of Play, wrote in a blog post on the announcement that since "cloud gaming announcements tend to be hype," "we're going to be upfront about it from the start. Trying to learn from the mistakes of other similar services, Facebook intends to start slow with a lineup focused on a limited genre of mobile gaming. Of course, the service is still in beta, and the selection of games offered will absolutely expand in the coming months.

However, the main attraction of Facebook Gaming's new service compared to its competitors is that (at least for the time being) all games offered are free to play. In-app purchases are possible from the start, but there is no initial cost. Reading Rubin's blog, it is clear that Facebook has not forgotten that the reputation of their games was built on the foundation of browser games: Adventure, PGA TOUR Golf Shootout, Solitaire: Arthur's Tale, WWE SuperCard, and Dirt Bike Unchained) are not surprisingly similar. [The controversial banning of Oculus 2 users who owned multiple headsets from their Facebook accounts and potentially losing access to game purchases was later hastily withdrawn. The announcement of this new cloud streaming gaming service came just hours after that confusion was (somewhat) resolved.

Facebook Gaming's new service is currently rolling out in the U.S. as a beta, with California, Texas, and several states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic being included as initial targets. (The full list can be found in the published blog post.) There are currently plans to expand the service throughout the United States. No mention has yet been made of an international release, but we would be very surprised if there were no such intentions sooner rather than later.