According to a report from tech website AllThingsD , Google is gunning for more than becoming the social networking king; they’re also going after Facebook and Apple’s highly lucrative social gaming market. Come on, try to act surprised.
As the report goes, Google is prepping to launch their social gaming service on Google+ in the very near future. If you’re a developer, Google’s incentive to bring you over to their side is a modest 30% cut out of sales, below the standard set by the current social gaming giants.
According to their sources, the Google+ games service could launch as soon as this month. Much of the buzz about an imminent launch date came from sources in attendance at Casual Connect, an annual conference for the casual gaming industry.
There’s currently no word on just what type of features or games would launch on the new platform, but AllThingsD suggests that Google’s recently-launched in-app payment product would be a key way for developers to easily monetize their games on the platform.
Google hasn’t come out and officially announced any plans for a gaming platform of their own, but a Google spokesperson did drop a hint by way of a statement to AllThingsD last month. The statement reads:
“It’s important to keep in mind this is an ongoing project and this is just the beginning. We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time. We’re just excited to get started.”
If Google is dead set on toppling Facebook as the social networking king, going after the social gaming market would be a key victory for the web giant, provided they pull it off. Let’s just hope it goes more smoothly than some of their previous product launches.
