Big Viking Games unveils $10 million fund for Facebook’s new HTML5 Messenger Instant Games

Those big vikings in Canada have some big bucks to invest in games for Facebook’s latest platform.

Big Viking Games announced today that it’s launching a $10 million publishing fund to help third-party development of HTML5 Messenger Instant Games. The company has been working on HTML5 research for nearly five years, and it projects that this new platform presents the industry’s next $100 billion opportunity (though this remains to be seen). Messenger-style apps are key to game distribution in Asian markets led by companies like Tencent and Line, but that business model hasn’t caught on in the West — and Line has even abandoned the United States. But with Facebook jumping into this space, it could make this gaming business work as long as the technology functions as promised. And that could benefit a company like Big Viking Games.