Google to bring multiplayer support for Android and iOS to Google Play Games

Ahead of the Game Developers Conference (March 17-21), Google posted and later pulled a blog post about upcoming improvements to Google Play Games. It seems the message was to appear in the Android Developers Blog as Google unveiled its new features for GPG and other services at the impending conference. Anyway, the blog post was unearthed from the Google cache, giving us an early look at the things to come. 

First off, Google will let players send virtual in-game objects to people in their Google+ circles. Also, the Play Games app will support multiplayer invites and will feature 18 new game categories, which will make it easier for gamers to discover fellow players and new games.

This could be how gifts will work in GPG

Furthermore, Google will bring turn-based and real-time multiplayer capabilities to both Android and iOS. Presumably, this means cross-platform multiplayer between users of different operating systems. Currently, this is only possible within select games (such as Minecraft) that support cross-platform multiplayer as a proprietary feature. The company will also facilitate cross-platform game development with a Play Games Unity Plug-in and an early Play Games C++ SDK.

Also, the Google Play Developer Console will be upgraded with a daily dashboard, which visualizes player and engagement statistics, including daily active users, retention, achievements, leaderboard performance, and more.

On Tuesday, March 18, Google will be hosting a Developer Day at GDC, where these and more topics will be detailed, including gaming possibilities with Google Glass. 

 

source: Google (cached) via Ron Amadeo (Google+)