One of the biggest announcements at this year’s Google I/O was Google Play Gaming services, the company’s attempt to compete with Apple’s Game Center and attract legions of players to its Android platform.
Gaming has become a massive source of revenue for both Apple and Google, with some of the most popular titles earning millions of pounds every day. As more and more players ditch traditional handheld consoles for their smartphone or tablet, the race to become the definitive gaming platform is well and truly on.
So far, the launch of Google Play Games has been somewhat muted - only a handful of games support it, and it currently lacks a centralised application. Instead, games which use it display notifications and link to your Google+ account. Knowing which titles boast support isn’t easy, and even when you find one that does, it’s not always obvious what you’re doing, thanks largely to the fact that the service uses Google's excellent but still relatively niche social network, Google+.
However, these are all things that Google can change. Otherwise, Google’s timing is excellent - and that’s not the opinion of a rabid Android fanboy, but the thoughts of prolific iOS developer Shane McCafferty. He feels that Apple has dropped the ball with Game Center, and Google can capitalize on this.
“Game Center has so much amazing potential but it's handicapped by perceivable apathy on Apple's part,” he says. “The Game Centre API is excellent. Sure, there could be more but it does the basics in rock solid manner - leaderboards, challenges and whatnot. It even makes more advanced things like voice chat easily integrated. But beyond the API, it's awfully disappointing. Leaderboards are made redundant because of rampant cheating - cheating that I, as a developer, can't even report reliably."
"Your leaderboard is useless if its not secure. There's so very much potential there to have a great online community playing, and sharing, games. It's close but it just seems like Apple were just ticking a box. Box is ticked. Let's move on.”
- Google Play Music All Access service launched at Google I/O
- Google improves Android location services
- Google announces Google Play game services
- Samsung Galaxy S4 on stock Android coming to Google Play
- Google Play revamp brings tablet-optimised apps to the fore
- Google+ introduces Hangouts app for mobile
This lackadaisical approach opens up the market for Google to really hit the ball out of the park with its own service, and so far, McCafferty is encouraged by what he has seen.
“One home platform for handling games is the best solution for everyone. Developers get to target one API, players get a unified gaming experience that they know most of their friends will be on, and Google get to ring fence players to best serve, and monetize.”
He also believes that the service can attract developers to Android. Traditionally, iOS has always been the lead platform for games, with most of Android’s big titles being ports from the App Store. Google’s new service could reverse this situation.
“If a dominant game platform emerges then investing in, or creating, a game on Android becomes a more attractive proposition,” McCafferty explains.
Sadly for Android gamers, even if this happens, McCafferty won’t be supporting Android with this titles - at least not immediately, anyway. Like so many indie devs, he has to focus his resources.
“I simply don't have the time,” he laments. “All my games are coded by just me. To give them the time they need I've chosen to concentrate on a single platform.”
This could be Google’s biggest headache when it comes to making Google Play Games a success - iOS has a reputation of being the “go to” place when it comes to the latest interactive entertainment experiences. Changing that perception is going to take a lot of effort, even if this latest venture is a success.
While McCafferty can’t pledge his allegiance to Android as a developer, speaking purely from a gaming perspective, he’s very interested indeed.
“I'm a gamer,” he says with a smile. “I wake up thinking about games and go to bed thinking about games. This certainly makes Android a more attractive platform for gaming. Where can I sign in?”
To get that kind of reaction from a hardcore iOS dev surely proves that Google has taken a step in the right direction. Now it just needs to get the games.
by rgoodwin via Featured Articles
Posts
No comments: