Google Play Games Leaks Ahead of I/O

Android Police reports on an information leak out of Google in the lead-up to their I/O conference, which starts on May 15th. A new version of Google Play Services contains information about "Google Play Games," the company's long anticipated unified gaming service. The leak shows support for saved game syncing, matchmaking, notifications, game invites, achievements, leaderboards, and integration with other Google services. "Who can send you notifications is, of course, managed by Google+. Pressing that button will bring up the usual circle dialog. All Play Games identity work will be done by Google+. Try and look surprised. ... Play Games can somehow "auto pick" players, which means you can manually pick them too. Presumably this would go down in a match-making lobby of some kind. There are limited slots to a game, we just don't know how many. ... Leaderboards by time - choose this week, all time, or today. You can also show "player-centered" scores so you can find where you are on the boards. Leaderboards plug into G+ and can be non-public. You can also filter the leaderboard by people in your circles. It will also show you what percentile you're in.

Re:Will this make mobile games less awful?

[Rob_Bryerton]

A couple of observations: most people seem to use mobile gaming as a time waster (say, waiting for a bus or an appointment) rather than playing the game for the sake of, well, gaming. Another thing is that now that smartphones are pretty much a mainstream item, it only follows that the games will cater to a broad as audience as possible: in other words, mostly watered down junk. And third, seeing as these devices use the touchscreen for the controls, it really limits the types of games that can realistically be deployed.

I've read that Android supports Bluetooth controllers such as the PS3 controller, but it can be hit or miss which games themselves support this input method. Add to this the fact that its not too convenient to carry a controller around everywhere, and you have the state of the games as we see them today.

Hopefully now that there are some Android console type devices on the horizon, there will be more games released which take advantage of external controller input, enabling the release of more complex game types. It remains to be seen how much these devices will sell. If they sell well, then I think more developers will take notice and not only enable alternative input devices in their wares to broaden their appeal, but also consider porting more complex games to Android.

Acheivement unlocked

[sayfawa]

You've earned the badge of boring, repetitive, unimaginative phone-game player. Here's a preview of the upcoming Angry Birds - Cut the Rope tie-in.

Look for all your save games to disappear...

[Nova Express]

...when Google shuts down the service 18-24 months from launch.