Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Mozilla Launches Initiative to Promote Browser Games

Mozilla, makers of the Firefox web browser, is looking to promote browser gaming in a big way by convincing developers to harness the power of HTML5 and other open web technologies.

Earlier today, Mozilla Labs launched a new division: Mozilla Labs Gaming. It’s an initiative “committed to providing the game developer community with the platform and tools they need to make innovative games on the Open Web,” according to the Mozilla Labs Gaming homepage. The project is focused on encouraging developers to harness open web technologies such as open video and audio standards, geolocation, multitouch, and faster javascript engines.

To get things rolling, Mozilla is launching Game On 2010, an international gaming competition for developers. The competition begins at the end of September and challenges developers to build browser-based games on open web technologies.

Mozilla’s browser gaming initiative reminds us of another company: Google. In May, the tech giant announced the Chrome Web Store, an application marketplace for HTML5 apps. A key point of the pitch was using HTML5 and web technologies to create rich browser-based games. Google is also reportedly working on Google Games with Zynga, the creator of FarmVille, Mafia Wars and a slew of other popular social games.

What do you think of Mozilla’s new initiative to promote browser games? Do you think the demand exists for browser games? Are you excited by the potential for browser games built on open web technology? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: mashable

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