During today’s Google event, not only did Google introduce a new version of Android (which is rolling out today) but they also announced the Nexus 7 and some more additions to Google Play and Google Play Games. Today, the Googlers introduced us to the Google Play Games app which we had already seen leaked as long ago as before Google I/O in May.
Google Play Games is basically a hub that shows you leaderboards, achievements and more for all the games you play. The hub also allows you to browse games and discover new games by seeing what your friends on Google+ are currently playing. There are also a few new games making their way to the Play Store soon including Prince of Persia, and Asphalt 8. They showed off Riptide GP2 which actually came out yesterday (and I spent most of yesterday playing it).
The new app is pretty similar to iOS’ GameCenter which was introduced in iOS 4 nearly 3 years ago. It’s about time Google made an app for Google Play Games right? It’ll allow you to play more games on your phone and tablet and find more games that you probably never knew existed. Sounds good for Game developers right? Don’t forget that it’s extremely easy for developers to add Google Play Games support to their game.
Google Play Games was first announced at Google I/O back in May. Which was integrated into quite a few games, but there was no app to see the leaderboards for each game. You had to actually go ahead and go into each game and see the leaderboards and achievements. It seems that now you can do all that from this app. Sounds pretty cool right? Of course, it’s using Google’s design guidelines, so it looks very nice. It actually looks a lot like the Google Play Store.
I’m excited to grab Google Play Games from the Play Store and see how great it actually is. It’s not actually there yet, but it should be soon. You should also be seeing a Google Play Services app getting an update as well. Which just went out last night.
Update: Google Play Games is now on the Play Store. Just hit the button below.