While Facebook might be seen as the spiritual home of the extremely casual and social game, the director of Game Partnerships at the social network, Sean Ryan, has made it clear that the next year will see a shift to something a little more "core," than in the past.
"The next 6-to-12 months, it's about core and mid-core," Ryan said while speaking with Venturebeat. "Not because the other genres aren't good, but when we look at openings on the platform where we think we can deliver a powerful experience alongside our developers… As we start to see Unity and Flash 11 become more prevalent, we can have a really rich gaming experience."
With mobile phone platforms like Android and iOS offering high quality, 3D games much more akin to what would be termed "hardcore," it seems surprising that Facebook hasn't begun integrating more impressive titles already - especially considering Unreal Engine 3 has been compatible with the latest version of Flash for some time now.
Perhaps a Facebook version of Infinity Blade won't be too far away.
However the question needs to be asked, will people really play more engaging games through Facebook? Many of those that enjoy Facebook "games," tend to be those that enjoy ones that are more akin to social clicking experiments - like Farmville - than actual games.
Do you guys think hardcore belongs on social networks? Will you play them when they appear?