With the Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco, CA this week, Google is announcing a variety of new features to its Google Play Games services. These include
So what does that mean?
Soon, you’ll be able to play more real-time and turn-based multiplayer games with your friends running Android or iOS which is awesome. You’re also able to invite them using Google Play. Of course, there are already cross-platform games available on the App Store and Google Play, but the key difference is that game developers were required to create their own cross-platform solution. With Google’s new Google Play Games SDK, most of the work is already done. It’s rather a matter of implementing Google’s solution then create an own.
Game gifts is a new service which allows you to send virtual in-game objects to your friends on Google+ or using an in-game search function. You’re probably familiar with this concept from rather spammy messages on Facebook. I really hope that Google+ won’t become the next social media website where I have to block friends because they’re trying to send me free items on Farmville. Google is also adding 18 new game categories on Google Play. While I think that this is a great idea, I personally recommend that Google should take care of fake-app issues beforehand. Game devs will soon be able to implement Google Analytics directly in the AdMob interface to gain a deeper insight into the user behavior. This will result in more targeted ads, including in-app purchase ads.
Final thoughts
Google is pushing mobile gaming which is a great idea. It’s about time for us to get proper cross-platforming. Still, I believe that Google Play remains rather chaotic, with tons of fake apps and witout a proper affiliate program available.
