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Google Play Games - Android will finally get a Game Center [APK Teardown]

V

vdlow

Member
So, the guys over Android Police got their hands on the new Google Play Services APK, and it comes with Google Play Games, which will probably be announced at Google IO (wednesday 5/15). It's a game center for android, with matchmaking, achievements, cloud game saves, and more.

Here's the link and some snippets.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...oogle-io-hello-cloud-game-saves-apk-teardown/

Play Games Settings allow you to turn on game notifications, manage who can send notifications, and show muted games.

Who can send you notifications is, of course, managed by Google+. Pressing that button will bring up the usual circle dialog. All Play Games identity work will be done by Google+. Try and look surprised.
Click to expand...

Play Games can somehow "auto pick" players, which means you can manually pick them too. Presumably this would go down in a match-making lobby of some kind. There are limited slots to a game, we just don't know how many.
Click to expand...

Leaderboards by time - choose this week, all time, or today. You can also show "player-centered" scores so you can find where you are on the boards.

Leaderboards plug into G+ and can be non-public. You can also filter the leaderboard by people in your circles. It will also show you what percentile you're in.
Click to expand...

The big question I have right now is, "is this all there is"? Will games handle all the client-side UI stuff that isn't here, or will be see a central game app come out of Google? A lot of stuff doesn't work right now, so we're definitely missing some pieces, I'm just not sure if that's a server thing somewhere, a central Play Games client, another Play Services update, or up to game developers. We'll have to see at I/O.
Click to expand...

nexusae0_wm_2013-05-11-15.05.27_thumb.png
nexusae0_wm_2013-05-11-15.03.37_thumb.png
 
C

CronoShot

Member
One thing I fucking love about Game Center on iPhone is being able to freely remove games from your profile, whether you have achievements on it or not.

Being extremely OCD, I'm annoyed if I have games on my profile that I either don't own or don't like. It's why I never rent or impulse buy PS3 games.
 
-COOLIO-

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
CronoShot said:
One thing I fucking love about Game Center on iPhone is being able to freely remove games from your profile, whether you have achievements on it or not.

Being extremely OCD, I'm annoyed if I have games on my profile that I either don't own or don't like. It's why I never rent or impulse buy PS3 games.
Click to expand...

hmm interesting
 
L

Lexxon

Member
I'm not much into mobile gaming, but I am somewhat of an Android fanboy. I'm happy to see Google putting some real effort into this. Hopefully they allow the Games app/framework work on all sorts of devices and don't just build it into Android 4.3, but I can't see them gimping themselves like that.

I use my Nexus 7 a lot for Ingress, and it's a nice size for potential mobile games. Android gaming just hasn't interested me in the least.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Better really late than never I guess? Even Amazon has had their own Android game platform for almost a year now.
 
P

Polari

Member
CronoShot said:
One thing I fucking love about Game Center on iPhone is being able to freely remove games from your profile, whether you have achievements on it or not.

Being extremely OCD, I'm annoyed if I have games on my profile that I either don't own or don't like. It's why I never rent or impulse buy PS3 games.
Click to expand...

I know that feel... can't figure out how to get Team Fortress 2 Beta off my Steam.

Also, that icon is hideous.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
It would be great if Google releases a Nexus TV that is a snapdragon 800 for $50. The best piece of info from all of this is the synced game saves or at least the parked api.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Cloud game saves, finally. Looks awesome.

G+ haters go dive under a tractor. ^_^
 
V

vdlow

Member
Google+ is the home for Android developers. There's plenty of them there and plenty of great content coming from them. Before I realized that, I almost never used G+.
 
R

RibbedHero

Member
Should be pretty cool. Hopefully the majority of games moving forward have optional integration. Would be like the Android version of Steam in time (hopefully).
 
T

tirminyl

Member
cw_sasuke said:
Google + is mandatory? Guess I'll never use it.
Click to expand...

This is how I feel when I see games that require me to sign into facebook. I immediately exit out of the game, lol.

I was wondering when something like this would come to Android. Can't wait for IO.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
Read about this 3 days ago on the Revolution Games blog. They just added Amazon Game circle support to the Amazon version of BS Android and said that something similar is to appear for Google Play purchases soon.
 
V

vdlow

Member
I'm sure that, at least the major developers, Rovio, Gameloft, EA, etc. have updates for their games ready, just waiting for the launch or the official reveal.
 
E

Elija2

Member
Don't see what the big deal is about it using Google+. If you have a Gmail account, YouTube account, or just a Google account in general, you already have a Google+ account (and if you're using an Android phone/tablet without a Google account, what's wrong with you?).

Can't wait for IO.
 
P

Polari

Member
Elija2 said:
Don't see what the big deal is about it using Google+. If you have a Gmail account, YouTube account, or just a Google account in general, you already have a Google+ account (and if you're using an Android phone/tablet without a Google account, what's wrong with you?).
Click to expand...

Pretty much... I'm not sure your profile even has to be public, does it? Also be kind folks, Google needs those numbers for their next press release trying to convince people it's a success.
 
O

OmegaFax

Member
I think the two reasons I still don't use Google+ is because:

A) Why?

B) Google's constantly trying to steer users into using their real names for writing Google Play reviews and commenting on YouTube.

I guess the argument is ... well, would everyone on NeoGAF be alright if the forum switched to a real name system, like Google is trying to do with their services or what Blizzard attempted with their forums? How does that work out?
 
Agent X

Agent X

Member
The ability to save data to the cloud makes this something worth looking forward to. I hope they can add this feature to existing games, too.
 
T

The Abominable Snowman

Member
I don't think its G+. Didn't Google put circles in all of Its services?

This change is welcome. G+ is still exclusively for fans of nerd icons and trendy app devs. If it uses G+ then I guess it would finally have some activity.
 
V

vdlow

Member
jedivulcan said:
I think the two reasons I still don't use Google+ is because:

A) Why?

B) Google's constantly trying to steer users into using their real names for writing Google Play reviews and commenting on YouTube.

I guess the argument is ... well, would everyone on NeoGAF be alright if the forum switched to a real name system, like Google is trying to do with their services or what Blizzard attempted with their forums? How does that work out?
Click to expand...

Real names for Play Store reviews is perfect simply because it lets devs reply to the comments.

Regarding Youtube, isn't this optional? I remember that they gave me the option to use my real name or not.
 
C

Cipherr

Member
/shrug. I'm not against anyone not wanting a account on 'insert site here'.

As long as we don't pretend that its a surprise. You would be fucked if you tried to do anything in Googles ecosystem while trying to refuse a Youtube account too, since its all the same thing. Anything they add to their ecosystem will use one account to tie into Google Wallet, Youtube, Search, Maps, G+, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, and everything else. I wouldnt be surprised if the cloud game saves show up in Google Drive and can be managed in the cloud from there. That integration is not going to go anywhere.... at all, so....
 
P

Polari

Member
adroit said:
Yes, it does. The exact wording is "Create a public profile."

I have a Google account. I do not and will not have a Google+ profile.
Click to expand...

OK, so it might be public, but I don't have my real name or any information visible to the public, so there's not really a problem. I still have my real name in my Gmail.
 
O

OmegaFax

Member
videtonator said:
Regarding Youtube, isn't this optional? I remember that they gave me the option to use my real name or not.
Click to expand...

It's optional. They made some changes to YouTube though that confused me. Layout changed, dealt with it. I got a few prompts to link my YouTube account to my Google+ account (when I had one at the time) and a notice that my channel will become private if I didn't make a choice.

Google Play's rating system, I'll agree, at least weeds out bogus or ignorant reviews, and gives developers some room to rebuttal.
 
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