After losing its mobile gaming platform to iOS and Android, Facebook is reconfiguring its gaming division by launching the beta version of Gameroom, a Windows-based desktop gaming platform that is said to answer Valve's Steam.

The app is currently available for users to download on Windows 7 or newer operating systems. It is free to download and since attracted quite an interesting run.

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Gameroom is a semi-autonomous platform where users can launch web games, ported mobile games and native Gameroom titles without the hassle of going through the News Feed, according to Tech Crunch. 

Despite Facebook's massive user base, Gameroom appears to be fighting a steep uphill battle against the current leader in the PC gaming platform, and that is Valve's Steam platform, which boasts of more than 120 million active users.

The main takeaway here is Facebook's strategy to entice developers to create content for Gameroom. Facebook has close to two billion users, and it is reportedly interesting how the company will market its new gaming platform to this massive audience.

Some market analysts agree that while Steam caters to a wide spectrum of gamers, ranging from casual gamers to hardcore eSports athletes, Facebook's Gameroom can still cash in on this market through its own brand of gaming and its user base.

Back in 2009 when Facebook was still on desktop, the company was able to build a massive gaming empire through its partnership with game development studio Zynga.

With Zynga's hit titles like "Farmville" and "Empires & Allies" distributed on Facebook's social networking empire, the two have created a gaming business that could easily rival that of Steam.

Despite this, Facebook and Zynga were not able to recreate this success on the mobile platform.

With the introduction of Gameroom, Facebook will no doubt aim for that once glorious days of its gaming market, as it competes with Valve's Steam.

TagsFacebook, steam, Valve, gameroom, facebook gameroom, windows, desktop gaming, Gaming