Google Play Games has crossed a new threshold in recent days. The application has indeed exceeded 5 billion downloads on the Play Store!
It’s an application that is quite often found pre-installed in new Android smartphones, and this is undoubtedly what has helped it to exceed 5 billion downloads. Google Play Games, unveiled at the 2013 Google I/O conference, has come a long way since then.
A cross-platform version in beta
Imagined as the Android replica of Game Center on iOS, Google Play Games centralizes the various games downloaded from the search engine store, adding social functions, trophies and suggestions for new games. And then there is this function where you can resume a game where you left off on another device.
Since then, the content of the application has been enriched, with the addition of an XP system and a progression of levels as you master Google Play games. It is also possible to record and share the highlights of your games on video! The app even offers some built-in titles to play offline, like Pac-Man, Solitaire or Cricket.
The search engine has big ambitions for Google Play Games. Last year, the company announced a multiplatform version for the application: smartphones and tablets of course, but also Chromebooks and Windows PCs. It’s about allowing access to Android games on all these devices by taking advantage of everyone’s peripherals, such as the keyboard and mouse for traditional computers.
In addition to the games themselves, all functions of Google Play Games are compatible with other platforms, not to mention cross-play. But the beta is currently limited to a handful of Asian countries.