Google+ Gets Games – Slowly Becomes a Platform

Frederic Lardinois

11 Aug 2011 — 1 min read

Google just added games to Google+. Ever since the launch of Google+, we heard rumors about this and today, Google’s senior VP of engineering and one of the driving forces behind Google+ Vic Gundotra officially announced the launch of games for the company’s new social networking platform. As Gundotra notes, it’s easy to ignore these games for those who don’t care about them, but if you are ready to play, you can now find the games button right at the top of the screen in Google+ (next to the Circles button). In addition, this is also the first time Google is working directly with third-party developers and marks the first time that we see pieces of the Google+ platform for developers.

The Games

Google teamed up with a number of developers to bring a first set of games to the service. Among these games are Rovio’s Angry Birds, Zynga Poker, Dragon Age Legends, Bejeweled Blitz and a sudoku game.

According to Gundotra, the games will allow users to share their “latest game updates and accomplishments with their circles of friends. Google just started rolling these new features out a little while ago, so you may have to wait a little bit before you can play Monster World on Google+.

The Platform

What is interesting, of course, is that this launch is a direct challenge to Facebook, which has a large community of developers who produce games for the company’s platform.

In a separate announcement on the newly launched Google+ Platform Blog, Google engineering director David Glazer also announced that the company is now ready to work with a few select developers who want to create products focused on the Google+ platform. Glazer, however, also emphasized that Google is looking for “quality of quantity” and that the company isn’t ready to open up its APIs for all developers yet.

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