Facebook is doubling down on its cloud gaming ambitions. The social media giant has purchased PlayGiga, a Madrid-based cloud gaming startup, for a cool 70 million euros (about $78 million). As part of Facebook Gaming, PlayGiga will assist with the company’s recently launched game streaming platform, which was developed to take on Twitch and Mixer.
“It’s easy to assume that because it’s gaming and because Facebook is so big that perhaps this is a niche,” Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s gaming head of product, said in an interview last month. “But the 700 million people that engage every month — that’s a huge number even at Facebook’s scale. And we know that number is growing rapidly.”