Games coming to Google+

A Google+ help page shows a reference to a "Games stream," the latest in a long line of hints that the company is planning to step foot into the social gaming market.

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Google seems to have accidentally dropped a hint about its plans to move into games. Again. This time it comes from a Google+ help page reported by VentureBeat, which said "If you're looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream." The page has now been pulled, but not before a screen grab was taken for proof. Streams sort the categorized content on Google+, currently consisting of groups and messages.

Not that this should be surprising, of course. Google+ is very clearly angling to compete with Facebook, and Facebook games are a huge market in the social gaming space. Google made waves by introducing features not present on Facebook, like Circles for grouping friends, but it also lacked some Facebook mainstays. It only makes sense that the service wants to reach parity with its competitor.

Besides which, Google has been making moves into gaming before, and this isn't the first time we've taken notice. Last year the company posted a job listing for a "Product Management Leader, Games." It also addressed the topic frankly at a ThinkGaming conference. Though we didn't know at the time that Google planned to launch its own social networking site, it all makes sense now.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 22, 2011 4:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Games coming to Google+.

    A Google+ help page shows a reference to a "Games stream," the latest in a long line of hints that the company is planning to step foot into the social gaming market.

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 4:34 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 4:47 PM

      But, when will google+ come to games? Some games already have twitter and facebook integration.

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      July 22, 2011 4:51 PM

      Who gives a shit.

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      July 22, 2011 5:05 PM

      That's a shame. The lack of stupid game shit is part of what I love about G+

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      July 22, 2011 5:06 PM

      goddamnit

      well time to find another new social network once this shitpile rolls out

      • reply
        July 22, 2011 5:38 PM

        It shouldn't be hard to ignore the games stream entirely.

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      July 23, 2011 10:33 AM

      "Google made waves by introducing features not present on Facebook, like Circles for grouping friends..."

      Facebook has had friend lists for a long, long time now and they work the same way as Circles.

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        July 25, 2011 7:04 AM

        Not really. There's a lot of differences. You can add people to circles, and they don't have to approve anything - circles, in that sense, are more like twitter lists. Also, the privacy options allow you to set different kinds of privacy to each circle (e.g.: "Friends" and "Family" can tag me in photos, but "Acquaintances" can't), something Facebook never had. Facebook's friend lists are just an afterthought.

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