Google Plus Games Launched
Google: Today we’re adding games to Google+. The stream will remain focused on conversations; http://eicker.at/PlusGames
Tagged: Mobile Games Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Google Plus Games
SlashGear: Help pages for Google Plus have officially confirmed the upcoming Games Stream; http://eicker.at/GooglePlusGames
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Gerrit Eicker
SlashGear: “Google’s help pages for Google Plus have officially confirmed the upcoming Games Stream, a place where results from what will presumably be social-style gaming on the new network will be pulled together. ‘If you’re looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream’ the help article suggests, though currently the link it mentions leads to a 404 page. … Such an inclusion would be another strike against Facebook, which has made significant strides in monopolizing the social or ‘casual’ gaming market with titles such as Farmville. Google is believed to have covertly invested between $100m and $200m in Farmville developer Zynga back in mid-2010.”
VB: “The Games Stream is apparently a social-style news stream that contains messages related to games that you play on Google’s social network. Google Plus has gained more than 10 million users and 20 million visitors in the last three weeks. However, games are not currently part of the network. … The topic also came up because Zynga revealed in a filing this week that Google was an investor in the company. Zynga makes the most popular games on Facebook. Google Plus might also be used to bring Android game results into a user’s PC-based game stream.”
TNW: “Google Plus Games could be the search giant’s take on Facebook Games and Apple’s Game Center, two of the biggest social gaming portals. – The interesting thing to note is that Google has taken feedback from Facebook users and used it to its advantage, separating notifications for games so that it does not pollute the stream, Many users of the world’s most popular social network have often complained about the lack of filters on games on their Home Feed.”
RWW: “There’s no official word from Google on a launch of a Games feature for Google Plus, but many signs are pointing to a feature that would be quite different from that of Facebook’s. The balancing act for Google Plus will be to have the Games help make the site a destination for people to return regularly while not chasing away those users who find the absence of casual gaming a welcome relief.”
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Gerrit Eicker
Gamification
Meaningful Play, getting gamification right with: meaning, mastery, autonomy; http://eicker.at/Gamification @dingstweets
Gerrit Eicker
Txteagle
Crowdsourcing the mobile way: txteagle clamps a global workforce in developing countries via SMS; http://eicker.at/txteagle
Gerrit Eicker
Mobile: Web or App?
According to comScore, the Web is slightly more popular than apps among mobile users; http://eicker.at/WebOrApp
Gerrit Eicker
Entertainment Platforms
GlobalWebIndex: Internet platforms are increasingly the entertainment platform of choice; http://eicker.at/PassiveExperience
Gerrit Eicker
Metaverse and Augmented Reality
Augmented reality will become the next big thing: popular, mainstream, mass culture, ubiquitous in 2011; http://eicker.at/1w
Gerrit Eicker
Virtual Goods
Inside Virtual Goods: U.S. virtual goods market to hit $2.1 billion in 2011; http://j.mp/b0YtUe
Gerrit Eicker 08:06 on 12. August 2011 Permalink |
Learnings: Games have a higher priority than business (profiles) and have definitely been on the agenda before G+’s launch. They even have a higher priority than usability fixes to the +Stream, +Notifications, +Circles. Well…
Google: “Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life. – [G]iving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t. … If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”
GigaOM: “The first titles include Angry Birds from Rovio, Bejeweled Blitz from PopCap and most notably Zynga Poker from longtime Facebook game developer Zynga, which is preparing to go public. … The move ratchets up the competition with Facebook and gives Facebook game developers a new opportunity. Some have felt that Facebook has played favorites with Zynga, which is by far the largest developer on Facebook. Now this will give them more leverage in dealing with Facebook and another place to make some money. Google+ won’t have top Zynga titles like Cityville and Farmville because they’re exclusive to Facebook but it does show that Zynga is further branching out apart from Facebook. … I don’t know how big a deal that is, since Facebook has clamped down on some of the game notifications you see. But it’s one way that Google is trying to stand out.”
RWW: “Games are an important feature for a social network that wants to compete with Facebook for users’ attention, not to mention its gaming business. … The battle for game developer attention is likely to be heated. Tricia Duryee reported late last month at All Things D that multiple sources told her Google would try to undercut Facebook by charging developers a lower fee for things like in-app sales. – Mike Swift, a writer at the San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley’s paper of record), says that Facebook has already issued a call for a press conference on the topic of gaming tomorrow.”
VB: “Zynga has built its business on social games on Facebook, and it currently has more than 250 million monthly active users, according to AppData. The company has been so successful that it recently filed to go public and raise up to $1 billion, and it made $90 million in income last year. Part of Zynga’s success comes from its ability to promote games virally through notifications – something Google appears to be shying away from.“