After months of speculation, one of TikTok’s first forays into gaming has been revealed. Users in a number of countries can now access the service and play HTML5-based mini-games.
TikTok is the most recent non-gaming service to attempt to break into the sector.
TikTok users in some countries, including the United States, can now upload videos with links to a limited number of HTML5-based mini-games.
The new feature is a test to see if games can become the platform’s next engagement magnet.
Users will find “Minigame” as an option under “Add link” in the final steps before uploading a TikTok video.
The option allows them to add one of seven small games from companies such as FRVR, Lotum, Nitro, Voodoo, and Aim Lab to their video. Viewers who come across the video can tap the link to begin watching it in the TikTok app.
One of the games, for example, requires you to compare two seemingly identical images before tapping on the difference.
TikTok announced a collaboration with Zynga to develop Disco Loco in November. In May, there were reports of TikTok testing HTML5 games in Southeast Asian countries.
The company never officially announced the initiative, but it confirmed the existence of the games to TechCrunch, emphasizing that they’ve been in an early testing phase in multiple countries for at least a few weeks.
The move is most likely another admission that different forms of media, such as video games, streaming video, social media, and others, are all competing for viewers’ attention.
In 2019, Netflix acknowledged that Fortnite is a significant competitor and has since included games in its subscription service. The goal of TikTok is to determine how the games affect users’ screen time on the platform.
In contrast to HTML5, Netflix’s approach allows subscribers to download a selection of mobile titles from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, making it a competitor to Apple Arcade.
The mobile gaming initiatives of TikTok and Netflix contrast with those of Facebook and Microsoft, which were famously blocked by Apple.
Microsoft and Facebook chastised Apple in 2020 for blocking their cloud gaming apps while allowing TV and movie streaming apps such as Netflix. Microsoft got around this by creating a browser-accessible web page.
Netflix’s game subscription avoided the issue by offering mobile games through the App Store in accordance with Apple’s guidelines. These guidelines do not appear to apply to TikTok’s HTML5 mini-games.
To read our blog on “TikTok discreetly updated its app with more than a dozen mini games,” click here
