Google Adds Some Serious Oomph to Play Games

Mobile gaming is on a tear, and Google's cross-platform multiplayer advance can alone add to that momentum. Much of what consumers are admiring to is based on the freemium model, though, which agency developers charge to appear up with able means to monetize their apps. One analytical basic of any monetization activity is analytics, and Google has bolstered Play Games' analytics accoutrement as well.
Google on Monday appear a amount of new appearance to the Google Play Amateur belvedere that are advised to accession discoverability and cross-platform multiplayer gaming while accouterment developers with added analytics.
Three out of every four humans who use the Android operating arrangement play games, according to Google. Given that there are added than 1 billion activated Android devices, there's a all-inclusive befalling for developers to ability gamers and accomplish acquirement in a growing market.
Four times added money was paid to Google Play Developers in 2013 than in 2012, Google said.
The Google Play Amateur account and software development kit is cross-platform, operating beyond Android, iOS and the Web. It allows developers to use appearance such as leaderboards, achievements, multiplayer and billow bold saves.
Discoverability Options
On the assurance and discoverability front, developers will be able to cover basic gifts, which players can forward to humans in their circles or through amateur search. The Play Amateur app now anon supports multiplayer invites. Both of these appearance apparently are advised to advice developers animate gamers to advice their accompany ascertain a assertive game.
Meanwhile, developers now can carry their titles into 18 new bold categories in the Google Play Store, including action, arcade, trivia, accidental and racing.
Google Play Amateur aswell is accretion multiplayer functions to acquiesce developers to use turn-based and real-time multiplayer functions on both Android and iOS. To accession cross-platform development, Google is afterlight the Play Amateur Unity Plugin to abutment cross-platform multiplayer, with an aboriginal adaptation of a Play Amateur C++ software development kit able of acknowledging leaderboards and achievements.
"I anticipate [adding iOS multiplayer functions is] a acute move because it's a adorning of the universe," Susan Schreiner, an analyst at C4 Trends, told TechNewsWorld. "For all these humans developing a game, it may be their passion, but it's aswell a business."
'Network Effect'
"I anticipate the multiplayer affection is traveling to actualize affectionate of a arrangement effect, so you're no best bound into your accurate accouterments belvedere as you've been in the past," said Lewis Ward, assay administrator of gaming at IDC.
"I anticipate that new accession will advice accession the acceptance and afterimage of a amount of titles that account from multiplayer gaming," he told TechNewsWorld.
"You can run through some of the added accepted and added advantageous amateur over the accomplished year and a lot of them do accept a multiplayer orientation, although the top-grossing amateur are generally altered beyond iOS and Google Play," Ward added. "I anticipate this adequacy ability advice actualize added amateur that are analogously accepted beyond both of those platforms."
Meanwhile, Google is enabling added statistics and analytics on the Google Play Developer Console, which offers Play Amateur adopters a dashboard accouterment data for signed-in users, such as circadian alive users, assimilation accomplishment and analysis, and leaderboard performance.
In addition, Google is abacus new appearance to the AdMob platform, a part of them Google Analytics affiliation to see how users collaborate with the game. In-app acquirement ads will acquiesce developers to ambition players with specific promotions for in-game sales. The AdMob belvedere aswell will cover new means to optimize ads, according to Google.
"Freemium amateur are ascendant on smartphones and tablets, and every bold developer needs adult analytics to accept their gamers, and accept the trends, and accept area the monetization possibilities lie," IDC's Ward noted.
Google's analytics for amateur statistics -- for instance, bold affair time -- are conceivably arrested compared to some added providers, but "they're apparently the best in agreement of advertising," Ward suggested.
"That's Google's background. What they're traveling to accompany to the table, I think, is a accurate backbone in addition out how to bazaar these games. They're apparently traveling to accept some actual adult tools, or at atomic a footfall up in agreement of composure of those tools, in agreement of how to ambition specific types of gamers," he said.
"I anticipate it is absolutely a absolute move for developers," said C4 Trends' Schreiner said. "Information is consistently at the affection of things. It's one affair to actualize a game, but a lot of amateur are not successful. With the analytics in play, the developer is not in the aphotic as to who's playing, what's working, and what is not working."