Facebook makes Credits mandatory for games as Zuckerberg's profile is hacked
Facebook is making Credits -- the site's virtual currency -- the only way for users to spend their own money on games on the site. Meanwhile, founder Mark Zuckerberg's profile has been hacked.
Facebook is going to make Facebook Credits the only way for users to spend their real-life money on Facebook games, TechCrunch reports. Currently if you want to throw away your hard-earned cash playing games on Facebook (buying an expensive prize pig in FarmVille, for example), all your money can go to the developer of that game.
But Facebook takes a 30 per cent cut of everything bought using Credits, so by making its currency mandatory, the social-giant is going to be making a whole lot more cash. Whether developers pass on the 30 per cent cost to players or not is up to them, however.
Users won't see much difference otherwise, as games can keep their own weird currencies -- like FishPoints or FarmBucks -- and developers such as Zynga could charge you a certain number of Facebook Credits in exchange for so many FishPoints to spend in-game.
So far Facebook hasn't exploited its Credits currency, but we can imagine a system in the future where you can buy things from other websites, such as Asos via their Facebook page, using your Facebook Credits -- doing all your online shopping using one virtual currency. World domination ensues at this point.
It's not all cash and roses for the 'book however -- founder Mark Zuckerberg's own profile has been hacked, and the following message left as his status:
"Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it? http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think? #hackercup2011."
That's pretty embarrassing for M-Zuck, and for Facebook -- which has responded by taking his profile down -- especially when it's so keen to show Facebook takes privacy concerns seriously.
What do you think? Would you buy Facebook Credits? Will you be pigging mad if your FarmBucks cost more? Did you haxx0r the Zuckster? Let us know in the comments, or on our own Facebook wall.