Social media platform Facebook has released a new Games software development kit (SDK) to help developers bring players into their games "for longer and more often," as revealed in their blog, and this is all centered around increasing community engagement by making it easier and more rewarding to share content, and understanding a game's community activity.
In terms of esports specifically, rewards will have a lot to do with this, as the new rewards feature allows PC devs to curate and grant free in-game rewards for viewers that tune-in during livestreams on Facebook. In fact, Hi-Rez Studios has been testing rewards during the Paladins Global Series, and as a result they'll officially launch rewards during the Paladins Premier League on March 24.
This is anything but new as a concept, as just today we reported that Loot Drops would return for the Esports Championship Series in Season 5 too, granting Faceit points for in-game items as well as real-life rewards, so it makes sense for Facebook to allow developers to do this for Facebook streams as well.
Developers interested in the SDK can sign up here.