Facebook to launch app discovery hub

Finding games on Facebook is about to get a whole lot easier after today's announcement that the social networking giant plans to launch its own app discovery hub named the App Center. Unlike Apple's App Store and GooglePlay, Facebook's App Center will not serve as a storefront for apps. Instead, visitors will have the chance to browse and learn about the apps in the App Center before being sent to Apple's App Store or Google Play to download the apps.

Finding games on Facebook is about to get a whole lot easier after today's announcement that the social networking giant plans to launch its own app discovery hub named the App Center.

Unlike Apple's App Store and GooglePlay, Facebook's App Center will not serve as a storefront for apps. Instead, visitors will have the chance to browse and learn about the apps in the App Center before being sent to Apple's App Store or Google Play to download the apps.

Facebook's Aaron Brady describes the App Center as a central place where Facebook users will be able to find new apps.

"Everything has an app detail page, which helps people see what makes an app unique and lets them install it before going to an app," Brady says in the App Center announcement.

The App Center is designed for games that use Facebook and it will be available on both mobile and web.

The introduction of the App Center will bring all Facebook apps to a centralized place. At present, there is no central hub on Facebook where users can search for games – developers rely on Facebook users promoting and sharing games with their friends through invitations and wall posts.

"I think it's quite a big deal," says Ian Cummings, the creative director of the studio behind Woodland Heroes, Row Sham Bow.

"There's really no discovery on Facebook now outside of the social stumble-upon-something-that-your-friend-is playing, and I think that can be address, so it's a really exciting thing to think that if we can be up there it can be found much easier," he tells Polygon.

The App Center will likely introduce Facebook's 900 million users to more apps.

Cummings says that at the moment Facebook game developers rely on buying ads in hope that potential players will click through to play their games, and word-of-mouth. He says while there are plenty of people on Facebook who are ready to click on anything, it is difficult to find dedicated gamers who will stick with a game they start.

"Once it's up and running, hopefully it just means that more people can find our game and more avid gamers can find it and appreciate it," hesays.

By bringing the games that use Facebook to a centralized hub, the App Center will be following in the footsteps of Zynga, which launched its own gaming portal, Zynga.com, in March of this year to help players discover Facebook games.

The App Center will likely introduce Facebook's 900 million users to more apps and benefit Facebook by increasingly the amount of overall app usage. It is expected to launch in the coming weeks.

Polygon contacted Zynga for comment and we will update this story when they respond.