Veteran Game Designer joins Google to work on Android Play

According to TechCrunch, it appears that Google has hired veteran games designer/developer Noah Falstein to head up their Android Play Studio.

A cached version of Falstein’s profile on Linkedin shows his role at Google as “Chief Game Designer at Android Play Studio.” At the moment its unknown if Google would enter into the mobile games segment itself considering its would be up against well-established studios like Rovio Entertainment, Halfbrick and MadFinger with titles like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja HD and Shadowgun already dominating the Android games market.

Veteran Games Designer Noah Falstein

Noah is best known for his work at LucasArts as co-designer for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and also worked for 3DO Interactive and Dreamworks Interactive. He is the current president of The Inspiracy, a game design and production firm that is contracted by other companies to produce games designed to aid corporate training, medical education and even for entertainment purposes.

Why would Google hire a game developer, apart from the obvious (to make games) reasons? One prevailing theory on the comments section of the TechCrunch article is that Google may be looking into game streaming, using the Google Fibre network to create a super-fast platform that can give users of the Chrome browser or the cheap-as-chips Chromebooks in the US some serious gaming capability without too much lag.

Another possibility is instead using the Unreal Engine 3 to run games inside the Chrome browser. Chrome already runs several games using Java and Adobe Flash and Air, but the Unreal Engine can do much, much more than that. What Google could task Falstein with is making Chrome the go-to place for indie game developers by making the Unreal Development Kit a little more accessible to beginners.

It could foster in a new era of game development and it would make the Chromebook one of the cheapest platforms for gamers, if you discount those tiny Android devices you can plug into your TV.