{"id":54024,"date":"2013-05-15T18:48:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T16:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=54024"},"modified":"2013-05-15T18:54:57","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T16:54:57","slug":"google-play-gets-serious-about-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/54024-google-play-gets-serious-about-gaming","title":{"rendered":"Google Play gets serious about gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At Google&#8217;s 2013 I\/O conference today (15 May), vice president of Android product management at Google, Hugo Barra confirmed a massive upgrade to Google Play Games services.<\/p>\n<p>For developers Google will be releasing a number of new software APIs that will unify the gaming experience not only across Android devices, but iOS and web devices as well.<\/p>\n<p>The core new API features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cloud save: port data across devices, such as game progression and game states<\/li>\n<li>Achievements: virtual trophies to encourage play<\/li>\n<li>Leaderboards: using Google+ circles for public and friend circle score boards<\/li>\n<li>Multiplayer: A service for matching players through peer-to-peer connections. It will use Google+ to find players among friends and other public players.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some Android devices have already been seeded with version 3.1.36 of Google Play Games services. Android Police recently got hold of the update file and perused through its contents. Other confirmed features found by Android Police are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Icon badges to note if a game is compatible with the Play Games service<\/li>\n<li>Gamer ranks based on your overall scores<\/li>\n<li>Chat services (text-only at this point)<\/li>\n<li>Player Avatars<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-54024 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/53864-google-play-games-introducing-seriously-cool-gaming-features\/attachment\/gpg-icon-deskop'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"68\" src=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/gpg-icon-deskop-96x68.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/53864-google-play-games-introducing-seriously-cool-gaming-features\/attachment\/phone-desktop'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"68\" src=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/phone-desktop-96x68.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/53864-google-play-games-introducing-seriously-cool-gaming-features\/attachment\/gpg-recent-activity'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"68\" src=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/gpg-recent-activity-96x68.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/53864-google-play-games-introducing-seriously-cool-gaming-features\/attachment\/gpg-notifications-menu'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"68\" src=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/gpg-notifications-menu-96x68.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<h6>Sources: <a title=\"Google I\/O 2013\" href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google I\/O 2013<\/a>, <a title=\"&quot;Google Play Games&quot; Leaks Out In All Its Glory Ahead Of Google I\/O - Hello, Cloud Game Saves [APK Teardown]\" href=\"http:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/2013\/05\/11\/google-play-games-leaks-out-in-all-its-glory-ahead-of-google-io-hello-cloud-game-saves-apk-teardown\/\" target=\"_blank\">Android Police<\/a><\/h6>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More Gadget news:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/53553-googles-io-conference-to-take-android-to-next-level.html\">Google\u2019s I\/O Conference to take Android to next level<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/52646-ouya-reviews-give-mixed-response-to-99-game-console.html\">Ouya reviews give mixed response to $99 game console<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/52288-cool-kickstarter-gadgets.html\">Cool Kickstarter gadgets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is boosting Android features for gamers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":54026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8585],"tags":[947,1638,9970,9971,5497,21],"class_list":["post-54024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-android","tag-google","tag-google-play","tag-google-play-games","tag-google-play-store","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54025,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54024\/revisions\/54025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}