Google Play Games Just Made Android Gaming Awesome(r)

Gaming on Android just got a way more legit. Google's just announced its new "Google Play Games" app and service at I/O today, and that comes with a whole bunch of features from achievements to leaderboards to matchmaking, multiplayer, and even cloud saves.

Any serious gaming platform nowadays has its own social network to build on, and Google's not to be left out. Your Play Games identity will be managed by?you guessed it?Google+, but that'll bring a whole bunch of social features to the table. The new app includes matchmaking and mulitplayer game options, an achievement system, saves that sync between devices linked to your account, and leaderboards in both "global" and "friends only" flavors. Basically, everything you'd expect to find rolled into a console gaming experience, for this generation anyway.

Of course, these features will only apply to Play-powered games, which will be tagged with a little controller-shaped badge for your identification convenience. Google Play Games is coming to your Froyo+ device today, via a Google services update, with a bunch of enabled games launching today as well. It should be a great diversion while we wait for all the other I/O goodness to hit. Let the games begin.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/google-play-games-just-made-android-gaming-awesome-r-506722393

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