Tag Archives: Google Play Games

Making Google Play the best place to grow PC games

Posted by Aurash Mahbod – VP and GM of Games on Google Play

We’re stepping up our multiplatform gaming offering with exciting news dropping at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC). We’re bringing users more games, more ways to play your games across devices, and improved gameplay. You can read all about the updates for users from The Keyword. At GDC, we’ll be diving into all of the latest games coming to Play, plus new developer tools that’ll help improve gameplay across the Android ecosystem.

Today, we’re sharing a closer look at what’s new from Play. We’re expanding our support for native PC games with a new earnback program and making Google Play Games on PC generally available this year with major upgrades. Check out the video or keep reading below.


Google Play connects developers with over 2 billion monthly active players1 worldwide. Our tools and features help you engage these players across a wide range of devices to drive engagement and revenue. But we know the gaming landscape is constantly evolving. More and more players enjoy the immersive experiences on PC and want the flexibility to play their favorite games on any screen.

That’s why we’re making even bigger investments in our PC gaming platform. Google Play Games on PC was launched to help mobile games reach more players on PC. Today, we’re expanding this support to native PC games, enabling more developers to connect with our massive player base on mobile.

Expanding support for native PC games

For games that are designed with a PC-first audience in mind, we’ve added even more helpful tools to our native PC program. Games like Wuthering Waves, Remember of Majesty, Genshin Impact, and Journey of Monarch have seen great success on the platform. Based on feedback from early access partners, we’re taking the program even further, with comprehensive support across game development, distribution, and growth on the platform.

    • Develop with Play Games PC SDK: We're launching a dedicated SDK for native PC games on Google Play Games, providing powerful tools, such as easier in-app purchase integration and advanced security protection.
    • Distribute through Play Console: We’ve made it easier for developers to manage both mobile and PC game builds in one place, simplifying the process of packaging PC versions, configuring releases, and managing store listings.
    • Grow with our new earnback program: Bring your PC games to Google Play Games on PC to unlock up to 15% additional earnback.2

We’re opening up the program for all native PC games - including PC-only games - this year. Learn more about the eligibility requirements and how to join the program.

Moving image of thumbnails for popular PC Games on Google Play – Remember of Majesty, Genshin Impact, Joourney of Monarch, and Wuthering Waves
Native PC games on Google Play Games

Making PC an easy choice for mobile developers

Bringing your game to PC unlocks a whole new audience of engaged players. To help maximize your discoverability, we’re making all mobile games available3 on PC by default with the option to opt out anytime.

Games will display a playability badge indicating their compatibility with PC. "Optimized" means that a game meets all of our quality standards for a great gaming experience while "playable" means that the game meets the minimum requirements to play well on a PC. With the support of our new custom control mappings, many games can be playable right out of the box. Learn more about the playability criteria and how to optimize your games for PC today.

Moving image of playable PC Games on Google Play
Thousands of new games are added to Google Play Games

To enhance our PC experience, we’ve made major upgrades to the platform. Now, gamers can enjoy the full Google Play Games on PC catalog on even more devices, including AMD laptops and desktops. We’re partnering with PC OEMs to make Google Play Games accessible right from the start menu on new devices starting this year.

We’re also bringing new features for players to customize their gaming experiences. Custom controls is now available to help tailor their setup for optimal comfort and performance. Rolling out this month, we’re adding a handy game sidebar for quick adjustments and enabling multi-account and multi-instance support by popular demand.

Moving image demonstrating customizable controls while playing Dye Hard - Color War on PC on Google Play
You can customize controls while playing Dye Hard - Color War

Unlocking exclusive rewards on PC with Play Points

To help you boost engagement, we’re also rolling out a more seamless Play Points4 experience on PC. Play Points balance is now easier to track and more rewarding, with up to 10x points boosters5 on Google Play Games. This means more opportunities for players to earn and redeem points for in-game items and discounts, enhancing the overall PC experience.

Moving image showing Google Play Points in Google Play Games
Google Play Points is integrated seamlessly with Google Play Games

Bringing new PC UA tools powered by Google Ads

More developers are launching games on PC than ever, presenting an opportunity to reach a rapidly growing audience on PC. We want to make it easier for developers to reach great players with Google Ads. We’re working on a solution to help developers run user acquisition campaigns for both mobile emulated and native PC titles within Google Play Games on PC. We’re still in the early stages of partner testing, but we look forward to sharing more details later this year.

Join the celebration!

We're celebrating all that’s to come to Google Play Games on PC with players and developers. Take a look at the behind-the-scenes from our social channels and editorial features on Google Play. At GDC, you can dive into the complete gaming experience that is available on the best Android gaming devices. If you’ll be there, please stop by and say hello - we’re at the Moscone Center West Hall!


1 Source: Google internal data measuring monthly users who opened a game downloaded from the Play store.
2 Additional terms apply for the earnback program.
3 Your game’s visibility on Google Play Games on PC is determined by its playability badge. If your game is labeled as “Untested”, this means it will only appear if a user specifically searches for it in the Google Play Games on PC search menu. The playability badge may change once testing is complete. You can express interest in having Play evaluate your game for playability using this form.
4 Please see the Play Points help center for more information including country availability.
5 Offered for a limited time period. Additional terms apply.

Com2uS brings a seamless multi-platform gameplay experience with Google Play Games on PC

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Director, Google Play Games

Reaching a motivated audience to play on PC

Summoners War: Chronicles is a mobile MMORPG from South Korean game developer Com2uS, released globally in March 2023. To date, Summoners War has earned over $2.7 billion with more than 180 million downloads worldwide. Set in a fantasy world where players must collect and train various monsters to battle against other players, Summoners War is one of the most popular mobile games in the world.

Nearly a decade later, the game continues to grow its large and active community of players, in part because Com2uS continues to release new content and updates to keep the game fresh and exciting. As part of Com2uS’s effort to offer their players the best way to enjoy the games wherever they want to play, they decided to expand their game to PC. They chose to expand to Google Play Games on PC to reach new users and offer the high-end immersive gaming experience to an already motivated audience ready to play mobile games on PC.

Moving image of gameplay across four devices with different screen sizes
Seamless sync across signed-in devices for Summoners War: Chronicles
Subject to game availability and PC compatibility

Optimizing for PC with the same Android build

Google Play Games on PC offered a quick and smooth integration process from mobile to PC using the same Android build. With many developer tools at hand, only few optimization steps were required to create a differentiated PC gaming experience. You can watch our Google Play Games on PC playlist to see more details on the integration process.

The Com2uS team added input support which is an essential feature to enable players to enjoy the game on large screens including tablets and foldables. Summoners War: Chronicles currently supports keyboard, mouse, and game controller, which has been one of the top requests from users. Also, it was important to optimize the user experience with cross-platform ability in mind. For example, the game's interface needed to be easily navigable and intuitive for players on all platforms, and the UI had to be adjusted for different size screens and allow clear explanation of the game controls.

To optimize the graphics settings for each platform, Com2uS chose Vulkan as their primary graphics API for its high performance and multi-platform ability. Even on high-end mobile devices, some players preferred flexible quality settings to avoid overheating and to preserve battery life. Vulkan allowed Com2uS to provide the best possible graphics quality for their key user demographic on both PC and mobile devices.

Using the Google Play Games on PC Emulator, Com2uS could test and debug the build in various player configurations, identical to the user environment. The emulator supports streamlined testing across multiple aspect ratios, directly accessible from the Play store and enables ADB access for developing and debugging. Having developed the game with Unity, they were able to automatically detect the emulator and directly deploy the game. Google Play Games on PC Emulator is coming soon for all developers, with support for the most popular game engines including Unity, Unreal, Cocos and more.

Providing the best user experience with simultaneous release

In November 2022, Com2uS simultaneously released Summoners War: Chronicles on both PC and mobile. Players can now enjoy the game on mobile or PC via Google Play Games. The release of the game on PC offers players a new level of gaming experience, allowing them to enjoy Summoners War on a larger screen and with more advanced hardware.

With Play Games Services, players can sync their progress automatically whenever they launch the game on a new device and can continue to collect rewards and Play Points no matter where they choose to play.

Get started with Google Play Games on PC

Starting today, we’re excited to announce that Google Play Games beta is opening up sign-ups for all players in Japan! Enable your players to experience immersive and seamless multi-platform gameplay with Google Play Games on PC. To join, express interest in our beta program today.


Google Play Games on PC is available to download in 14 countries as of April 19, 2023.
Please see g.co/googleplaygames for more information. Game titles may vary by region.



Google Play Logo

Unlock seamless gameplay across mobile and PC with Google Play Games

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Director, Google Play Game

Google Play Games on PC gives users the ability to play their favorite mobile games on PC, with the security and stability they expect from Google Play. With a catalog of top-tier games and over 10 billion monthly sessions on mobile, our users have met this product with enthusiasm for its high-quality, high-performance emulation and cross-screen gameplay.

For developers, joining Google Play Games on PC can help you increase user reach, engagement, and ROI and build high-quality games across Google surfaces.
Moving image showing seamless sync across signed-in devices of four varying sizes playing Asphalt 9: Legends
Illustrative example of seamless sync across signed-in devices for Asphalt 9: Legends
Subject to game availability and PC compatibility

At today’s Google for Games Developer Summit, we announced how we’re making cross-platform game development even easier, by continuing to simplify and improve the onboarding process for Google Play Games on PC. Watch our Google Play Games on PC playlist or, keep reading to check the most important updates from today.

Moving image showing Google play Games home page on a desktop monitor
Google Play Games is available to download in 13 countries*. Subject to game availability and PC compatibility

  • Google Play Games on PC is expanding to more regions and including more games loved by billions of users worldwide. The program will be expanding to Japan and countries in Europe in the next couple of months and adding several new games including Garena Free Fire, Ludo King, and MapleStory M.

  • Through our partnership with Intel, we’re making it easier to join Google Play Games on PC with an existing mobile build. While fully optimized games still offer the best experience for users and qualify for unique cross-platform marketing and promotion, we now offer the option to submit your existing mobile build in the meantime to reach players faster. So if your mobile game already plays well on desktop, you can express interest now to join Google Play Games.

  • The new Google Play Games on PC developer emulator is a developer-focused build of Google Play Games specially designed for your debug and build process. It allows you to deploy games directly such as sideloading APKs via adb command or using Android Studio to adjust some graphics and hardware settings to validate different player configurations. To download the emulator, express your interest today.

  • In order to ensure that players have a high-quality experience on Google Play Games, use our new release checklist to verify that you've completed all the necessary steps before submitting a build to ensure a quick approval process. This checklist covers key requirements including using high-resolution textures and assets, supporting Windows aspect ratios, and implementing mouse and keyboard input.

  • With over 2 billion gamer profiles, Play Games Services stands at the core of ensuring seamless continuity across devices for Google Play Games. This year, we will roll out Next Generation Player IDs. These will keep a user's Player ID consistent across surfaces for any given game, while enabling them to be unique across different games.

  • Over the last few years, there’s been a huge push for large-screen devices in the gaming industry, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and foldables. Even though each form factor has its unique advantages, you don’t need to customize your game for each one independently. Check out this session to learn how to ensure great playability across different platforms, all at once.

You can learn more about Google Play Games on PC at the developer site, and watch all the sessions from the Google for Games Developer Summit at g.co/gamedevsummit.


Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.
*Google Play Games on PC is available to download in 13 countries as of March 14, 2023. 
Please see g.co/googleplaygames for more information. Game titles may vary by region.

Google Play Games beta on PC continues global expansion

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Director, Google Play Games

Earlier this year, we announced that Google Play Games would be coming to PCs as a beta experience in a limited number of markets. Our goal was to gather early feedback so we could continue improving the product to fit the needs of players and developers around the world. In August, we expanded the product to more players in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia. Beginning today, we’re excited to make Google Play Games beta available for download to all players in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Photo of a desktop monitor with keyboard and mouse. On the monitor is the Google Play homepage showing the game Cookie Run Kingdom as the main item ready for install
Google Play Games is available to download in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore.
 Subject to game availability and PC compatibility.

In the last few months, our Google Play Games catalog growth has been accelerating with many popular mobile titles including 1945 Air Force, Blade Idle, Cookie Run: Kingdom, and Evony: The King’s Return. All of these titles and dozens more can be played on Windows PCs via a standalone application built by Google.

Our broader goal continues to be meeting players where they are and giving them access to their games on as many devices as possible. Players participating in the beta have expressed excitement at being able to seamlessly play their favorite games across their phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and PCs. Additionally, since launching earlier this year we have made significant strides to reach even more players by reducing the minimum spec requirements to PCs running Windows 10+ with an integrated graphics card and 4+ core CPU.

A phone, Desktop monitor and large tablet screens overlapping side by side while simultanously playing a video trailer for Cookie Run Kingdom. A keyboard and mouse are also visible beneath the screens
Seamless sync across signed-in devices
Subject to game availability and PC compatibility.

We’re thrilled to expand our platform to more markets for players to enjoy their favorite games on Google Play. As we move towards a full release, we will continue to add new features and evaluate developer and player feedback. To sign up for future announcements, or to access the beta in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, or Australia, please go to g.co/googleplaygames. If you’re an Android games developer looking to learn more about Google Play Games, please express interest on our developer site. We’ll have more to share on future beta releases and regional availability soon.

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.
Game titles may vary by region.

Things to know from the 2022 Google for Games Developer Summit

Posted by Greg Hartrell, Product Director, Games on Play/Android

Google for Games Developer Summit 

Over the years, we’ve seen that apps and games are not just experiences - they’re businesses - led by talented people like yourselves. So it's our goal to continue supporting your businesses to reach even greater potential. At our recent Google for Games Developer Summit, we shared how teams across Google have been continuing to build the next generation of services, tools and features to help you create and monetize high quality experiences, more programs tailored to your needs, and more educational resources with best practices.

We want to help you throughout the game development lifecycle, by making it easier to develop high quality games and deliver these great experiences to growing audiences and devices.


Easier to bring your game to more screens
To enable games on new screens and devices, we want to help you meet players where they are, giving them the convenience of playing games wherever they choose.

  • Gameplay across tablets, foldables, and Chromebooks is on the rise and offers the opportunity to be more engaging and immersive than ever before. In 2021, Android usage on CrOS grew 50% versus the previous year, led by games.
  • Google Play Games for PC Beta rolled out in January to South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This standalone Windows PC application built by Google, allows users to play a high quality catalog of Google Play games seamlessly across their mobile phone, tablet, Chromebook, or (now) their Windows PC. Learn more and start to optimize your game for more screens today.
  • Play as you download beta program was announced last year and we will soon open it up to all Android 12 users. PAYD allows users to get into gameplay in seconds while game assets are downloaded in the background. and can happen with minimal developer changes to your underlying implementation. Sign up for the beta.

Easier to develop high quality games

We’re committed to supporting you build high quality Android games, by continuing to focus on tools and SDKs that simplify development and provide insights about your game, while also partnering with game engines, including homegrown native c/c++ engines. Last year, we released the Android Game Development Kit (AGDK), a set of tools and libraries to help make Android Game Development more efficient, and have made several updates based on developer feedback.

  • Android Game Development Extension allows game developers to build directly for Android from within Visual Studio. To make debugging easier across Java and C, AGDE will now include cross compatibility between Android Studio and Visual Studio so you can open and edit your AGDE projects in Android Studio’s debugger.
  • The new Memory Advice API (Beta) library added to AGDK helps developers understand their memory consumption by combining the best signals for a given device to determine how close the device is to a low memory kill.
  • We’ve fully launched the Android GPU Inspector Frame Profiler to help you understand when your game is bottlenecked on the GPU vs. CPU, and achieve better frame rates and battery life.

More tools to help you succeed on Google Play

The Play Console is an invaluable resource to help in your game lifecycle, with tools and insights to assist before and after launch.

  • We continue to invest in programs to help developers of all sizes grow their businesses with Google Play. For our largest developers, we launched the Google Play Partner Program for Games, offering additional growth tools and premier services, tailored for the unique needs of developers at this scale.
  • Reach and devices helps you make foundational decisions about what devices to build for, where to launch and what to test, both pre-launch and post-launch. It already shows your install and issue distributions across a range of device attributes. Today, we’re launching Google Play revenue and revenue growth distributions for your game and its peers, so you can build revenue-based business cases for troubleshooting or device targeting, if that suits your business model better than using installs.
  • We recently launched Strategic guidance in Console, which provides an intuitive way to help you evaluate how well your game is monetizing, and see opportunities to grow revenue. You can think of Reach & devices as helping you to understand revenue opportunities from a technical perspective; strategic guidance does the same from a business perspective, so you can use them together to provide a holistic picture of your IAP revenue drivers.
  • Android vitals is your destination to monitor and improve your game’s stability on Google Play. For those of you who have games with global presence, we’ve just launched country breakdowns and filters for Vitals metrics, so it’s easier for you to prioritize and troubleshoot stability issues. In addition, today we’re launching the Developer Reporting API which gives you programmatic access to your core Android vitals metrics and issue data, including crash and ANR rates, clusters, and stack traces.

Learn more about everything we shared at the Google for Games Developer Summit and by visiting g.co/android/games for additional resources and documentation. We remain committed to supporting the developer ecosystem and greatly appreciate your continued feedback and investment in creating high quality game experiences for players around the world.

Google Play Games beta launches on PC in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Group Product Manager, Google Play Games

Google Play Games Logo

In December, we announced that Google Play Games will be coming to PCs. As part of our broader goal to make our products and services work better together, this product strives to meet players where they are and give them access to their games on as many devices as possible. We're excited to announce that we’ve opened sign-ups for Google Play Games as a beta in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Introduction video of Google Play Games beta

Users participating in the beta can play a catalog of Google Play games on their Windows PC via a standalone application built by Google. We’re excited to announce that some of the most popular mobile games in the world will be available at launch, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics, which delight hundreds of millions of players globally each month.

Google Play Games beta PC application

This product brings the best of Google Play to more laptops and desktops, enabling immersive and seamless gameplay sessions between a phone, tablet, Chromebook, and Windows PC. Players can easily browse, download, and play their favorite mobile games on their PCs, while taking advantage of larger screens with mouse and keyboard inputs. No more losing your progress or achievements when switching between devices, it just works with your Google Play Games profile! Play Points can also be earned for Google Play Games activity on PCs.

Google Play Games gameplay on multiple devices including a phone, PC, and tablet.

We’re thrilled to expand our platform for players to enjoy their favorite Android games even more. To sign up for future announcements, or to access the beta in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, please go to g.co/googleplaygames. If you’re an Android developer looking to learn more about Google Play Games, please express interest on our developer site. We’ll have more to share on future beta releases and regional availability soon.

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.
Game titles may vary by region.

Google Play Games beta launches on PC in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Group Product Manager, Google Play Games

Image of Google Play Games logo

In December, we announced that Google Play Games will be coming to PCs. As part of our broader goal to make our products and services work better together, this product strives to meet players where they are and give them access to their games on as many devices as possible. Today we're excited to announce that we’re opening sign-ups for Google Play Games as a beta in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Introduction video of Google Play Games beta

Users participating in the beta can play a catalog of Google Play games on their Windows PC via a standalone application built by Google. We’re excited to announce that some of the most popular mobile games in the world will be available at launch, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics, which delight hundreds of millions of players globally each month.

Google Play Games beta PC application

This product brings the best of Google Play to more laptops and desktops, enabling immersive and seamless gameplay sessions between a phone, tablet, Chromebook, and Windows PC. Players can easily browse, download, and play their favorite mobile games on their PCs, while taking advantage of larger screens with mouse and keyboard inputs. No more losing your progress or achievements when switching between devices, it just works with your Google Play Games profile! Play Points can also be earned for Google Play Games activity on PCs.

Google Play Games gameplay on multiple devices including a phone, PC, and tablet

We’re thrilled to expand our platform for players to enjoy their favorite Android games even more. To sign up for future announcements, or to access the beta in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, please go to g.co/googleplaygames. If you’re an Android developer looking to learn more about Google Play Games, please express interest on our developer site. We’ll have more to share on future beta releases and regional availability soon.

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.
Game titles may vary by region.

Focusing our Google Play games services efforts

Posted By James Smith, Product Manager, Google Play

In order to help developers make great games and build their businesses, we offer Google Play Games Services (GPGS). GPGS provides powerful tools to build, analyze and retain your audience and optimize your game. After listening to developer feedback and examining usage, we have decided to remove some of the features so we can focus on making our offering more useful.

In December, we announced the end of support for the creation of new iOS accounts given the low usage of GPGS on iOS. Additionally, our latest Native SDK release (2.3) will no longer support integration with iOS and going forward we will not be supporting or updating the iOS SDK.

We've also examined the features that GPGS offers. While developers use engagement and reporting tools extensively, there is lower usage for Gifts, Requests, and Quests. We therefore plan to stop supporting Gifts, Requests, and Quests. In order to help developers that do use these features plan for their removal, we will leave them open for 12 months, deactivating them by 31st March 2018. We'll be continuing support for other features such as Sign-in, Achievements, Leaderboards and Multiplayer.

Play games services remains an important part of the tools we provide developers, and we're working hard on future GPGS updates. We continue to be strongly committed to providing high quality services for Games, including new tools such as official Firebase support for Unity and C++ developers, and integration with Firebase Analytics. These changes allow us to focus our efforts on the services developers value most to build high quality, engaging games.

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Games authentication adopting Google Sign-In API

Posted by Clayton Wilkinson, Developer Platform Engineer

Some changes are coming to Play Game Services in early 2017:

Changes to Google API Client building

In November, we announced an update to Google Sign-In API. Play Game Services is being updated to use Google Sign-In API for authentication. The advantages are:

  • Games and Sign-In in same client connection.
  • Single API for getting Auth code to send to backend servers.

This change unifies the Google Sign-in and the Games API Sign-in, so there are updates to how to build the Google API Client: 

// Defaults to Games Lite scope, no server component
  GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
     GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN).build();

// OR for apps with a server component
   GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
     GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN)
         .requestServerAuthCode(SERVER_CLIENT_ID)
         .build();

// OR for developers who need real user Identity
  GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
     GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN)
         .requestEmail()
         .build();

// Build the api client.
     mApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
                .addApi(Games.API)
                .addApi(Auth.GOOGLE_SIGN_IN_API, gso)
                .addConnectionCallbacks(this)
                .build();
    }

 @Override
    public void onConnected(Bundle connectionHint) {
        if (mApiClient.hasConnectedApi(Games.API)) {
            Auth.GoogleSignInApi.silentSignIn(mApiClient).setResultCallback(
                   new ResultCallback() {
                       @Override
                       public void onResult(GoogleSignInResult googleSignInResult) {
                           // In this case, we are sure the result is a success.
                           GoogleSignInAccount acct = 
                              googleSignInResult.getGoogleSignInAccount());
 
                          // For Games with a server, send the auth code to your server.
                          String serverAuthCode = signInAccount.getServerAuthCode();
 
                         // Use the API client as normal.
                        Player player = Games.API.getCurrentPlayer(mApiClient);
                       }
                   }
            );
        } else {
            onSignedOut();
        }
    }

Account creation within iOS is no longer supported

  • Currently, there is no support for new players to create a Play Games account on iOS. Additionally, the Google+ integration has been removed from iOS. As a result "social" APIs will return result codes indicating success, but return empty lists. This includes the "standard" UIs for leaderboards and multiplayer invitations.

Google+ is no longer integrated

  • Announced last year, Games is decoupled from Google+ during this transition. As a result the public APIs for getting connected players via circles stopped working, but the standard UIs for multiplayer invitations and social leaderboards continued to work. Starting from February 2017, the standard UIs will also not display the Social graph results as Google+ data becomes inaccessible. This will affect multiplayer games, social leaderboards, and gifts API on Android. The effect will be that these APIs will return successfully, but with an empty list of players.

List of APIs that are deprecated by removing Google+ integration (and their C++ equivalents):

  1. Games.Players.getPlayerSearchIntent()
  2. Games.Players.loadConnectedPlayers()
  3. Games.Players.loadInvitablePlayers()
  4. The value LeaderboardVariant.COLLECTION_SOCIAL
  5. Invitations.loadInvitations()
  6. RealtimeMultiplayer.getSelectOpponentsIntent()
  7. TurnBasedMultiplayer.getSelectOpponentsIntent()
  8. All methods in the Requests package.

We realize this is a large change, but moving forward Play Game Services are much better aligned with the rest of the Mobile platform from Google and will lead to better developer experience for Android game developers.

Calling European game developers, enter the Indie Games Contest by December 31

Originally posted on Google Developers blog

Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Partner Development Manager

To build awareness of the awesome innovation and art that indie game developers are bringing to users on Google Play, we have invested heavily over the past year in programs like Indie Corner, as well as events like the Google Play Indie Games Festivals in North America and Korea.

As part of that sustained effort, we also want to celebrate the passion and innovation of indie game developers with the introduction of the first-ever Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe. The contest will recognize the best indie talent in several countries and offer prizes that will help you get your game noticed by industry experts and gamers worldwide.

Prizes for the finalists and winners:

  • An open showcase held at the Saatchi Gallery in London
  • YouTube influencer campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR
  • Premium placements on Google Play
  • Tickets to Google I/O 2017 and other top industry events
  • Promotions on our channels
  • Special prizes for the best Unity game
  • And more!

Entering the contest:

If you're based in Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France (coming soon), Germany, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Poland (coming soon), Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, or UK (excl. Northern Ireland), have 15 or less full time employees, and published a new game on Google Play after 1 January 2016, you may now be eligible to enter the contest. If you're planning on publishing a new game soon, you can also enter by submitting a private beta. Check out all the details in the terms and conditions. Submissions close on 31 December 2016.

The process:

Up to 20 finalists will get to showcase their games at an open event at the Saatchi Gallery in London on the 16th February 2017. At the event, the top 10 will be selected by the event attendees and the Google Play team. The top 10 will then get the opportunity to pitch to a jury of industry experts, from which the final winner and runners up will be selected.

Even if someone is NOT entering the contest:

Even if you're not eligible to enter the contest, you can still register to attend the final showcase event in London on 16 February 2017, check out some great indie games, and have fun with various industry experts and indie developers. We will also be hosting a workshop for all indie games developers from across EMEA in the new Google office in Kings Cross the next day, so this will be a packed week.

Get started:

Enter the Indie Games Contest now and visit the contest site to find out more about the contest, the event, and the workshop.