Big Viking creates $10M publishing fund for HTML5 messenger games

Canadian HTML5 developer-publisher Big Viking Games has put together a $10 million publishing fund to bring more games to messaging platforms. 

The fund has been established just a day after Facebook launched its new Instant Games initiative, which lets users play classic titles and new releases in the Messenger app. 

Big Viking is working with Facebook as a launch partner on the new platform, and will release its space-shooter Galatron on Instant Games on December 15. 

The studio hopes it can encourage other developers to follow suit by giving them access to its customized HTML5 development and marketing platforms. 

Company CEO, Albert Lai, believes the instant, uniquely social nature of in-messenger games could eventually make mobile app stores obsolete. 

"In the 1990's we bought all of our digital content on compact discs, which now seems crazy given how easy it is to access high quality content on the internet," says Lai. 

"We believe that we will soon look at the App Store with the same lens, and that the future of gaming on mobile is highly social, instantly playable, and high quality."

You can find out more about the studio's HTML5 Messenger Fund over on the Big Viking website.