During the Games Developers Conference this week, Google has announced that Google Play Games services, the company’s backend that activates online features for many Android game apps such as multiplayer capability, will soon be available to iOS. Google says that it will offer the service to app developers so their games can employ turn-based and real-time multiplayer gaming into multiple, cross-platform devices.
This means that you can soon challenge your iPhone-totting friends to a round of Badland, even though you are using an Android mobile device.
Before the announcement, iPhone and iPad users have to settle on a Google-provided plug-in for the Unity game engine. Google also says it is releasing a separate SDK for non-Unity game apps.
Aaron Souppouris of The Verge says that Google’s announcement of expanding multiplayer capabilities to iOS, as well as Microsoft’s anticipated announcement, could “signal a change in the way the big three mobile operating systems approch gaming.”
Google adds that many of new features in Google Play, including the cross-platform multiplayer service, will go live on March 18, Tuesday.
Source: The Verge
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