Google+ Games was one of the first major features to launch after Google+ was founded, but recently its been lacking any updates. What's happening? What will they become?
About Google+ Games
Google+ Games launched in late 2011 shortly after Google+ itself had just launched. Popular titles such as Angry Birds and Bejeweled Blitz were among the initial launch partners. But other than a slew of minor updates in the months after games launched, not much has happened - and no new games have been added (Just like the History API). Why is this? Lets take a look.
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| Some of Google+'s Games |
Were Google+ Games unsuccessful?
One of the reasons there could no longer be any attention to Google+ Games is because they were not as popular as Google had anticipated. The evidence of this is that Wooga (the creators of Diamond Dash, Monster World and Bubble Island) removed their games from Google+ July 1st 2012 which was supposedly due to low usage.
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| Woogas Announcement on Google+ |
...or is something bigger in the works?
Another possible reason Google+ Games may not be seeing any updates or additions recently, and one I strongly believe in - is that a big update will be released in near future. This update might involve the creation of a Games Centre on Android allowing the Google+ Android app to feature games as well as its desktop counterpart.
There is evidence that Google is working on this, for example way back in early 2012 before Google+ had its first redesign I commented on a post by +Google+ asking for games in the Google+ Android app. As you can see, Google+ +1'd this comment, perhaps hinting at the future.
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| I was very excited at the time! |
The second piece of evidence was found by Android Police in an APK teardown of the Google+ Android app mid 2012. They discovered that there was a hidden 'Games' item in the menu as well as some work in progress notifications.
At Google I/O 2012 +Punit Soni said the following:
By next year, we will not be here talking about Google+ Games, Chrome Web Store games, Games for Native Client and Android games,” he said. “We will be talking about Google games.With Google I/O fast approaching this could well be one the big things Google will announce this May. This would be fantastic news as this provides huge potential for Google+ by giving its games a much larger audience. It would also be expected that this would include an API and an easier way to submit games to Google+.
Conclusion
Nothing above is set in stone, and only time will tell whether any of this happens. But I think you'll agree with me that the evidence that something big is happening is pretty clear.
Ill be eagerly awaiting Google I/O, will you? Let us know what you think in the comments below!