Google Play Games has been around for a few years now, and is one of the most sought after feature in any new game for Android. Why? There are a few reasons. One is the fact that it will save where you left off (however it’s not perfect), if you switch phones, do a factory reset, etc. Another is the leaderboards and achievements. Because who doesn’t like to be competitive with their friends? Google made it really easy for developers to implement Google Play Games into their games, in fact they only need to add about 2 lines of code, seriously that’s it.
Now for those of us looking for new games to play, it hasn’t been as easy. As the Google Play store’s description didn’t note whether the game featured Google Play Games support or not, unless the developer explicitly said so in the description. However, that appears to be changing. In the Google Play Store now, some users are seeing that there is now a Google Play Games icon listed in some game listings, which notes that the game has Google Play Games support. Take Mortal Kombat X for example. In the short description you see on the listing, you also see two icons below that, one is the Google Play Games icon and the other is a medal type icon to denote achievements and leaderboards. So now you’ll know that this game does in fact include Google Play Games support. Definitely a great feature to have, nonetheless.
This appears to be a pretty subtle change to the Google Play Store, and many are already seeing the changes in their Google Play on their smartphones and tablets. Leading us to believe that this is not a staged roll out, but it is definitely a server-side change, as there hasn’t been an update to Google Play recently. This is something that most people wouldn’t even notice – if we didn’t point it out – however it is nice to see it there, nonetheless. It will definitely make it easier to find a new game, and a game that supports Google Play Games as well.