Snapchat Will Reportedly Launch Its Own Gaming Platform

Snapchat is known for many things, but being a video game platform isn’t one of them. The social media service apparently plans to change that by entering the gaming scene. After reportedly purchasing a game engine last year, it seems Snap Inc. is finally ready to make something out of it. If it succeeds in launching a gaming platform, the company might finally boost its user growth numbers.

According to sources who spoke with The Information, the gaming platform by Snap is coming this fall. It would seem that the social media site has been signing on publishers to make games for it, though the details are still sketchy. For starters, there have been no specifics as to what games will actually be made for Snap’s platform.

Considering how much the company has been investing in augmented reality, it’s safe to assume that at least some of the games will be AR in nature. Shooting digital zombies superimposed over real-world environments would certainly be fun. Perhaps simulated ghost hunting could work as well by trying to find spirits using a phone’s camera lens.

In any case, this seems to be a sensible development for a company like Snap, TechCrunch notes. The company has been investing a lot in its Lens Studio software, which developers can use to create features and filters. These can then be used to augment Snapchat’s AR capabilities to do all sorts of things.

Now, it’s worth noting that Snap won’t be the first company to think up of social video games on a messaging platform. Social games have been present on Facebook's Messenger for quite some time.

What Snapchat will have as an advantage over Facebook is how much more engaged its users are with regards to its camera features. By making the most out of this engagement via AR games, Snap might generate enough hype to see its user growth numbers improve.