Google has unveiled Google Play games services on Wednesday, a new family of APIs built specifically for game developers. The platform will support cloud saves, thereby allowing users to save their progress or game state and pick it up on a separate device, as well as achievements and leaderboards using Google+. The announcement, made at Google’s I/O annual developer conference in California, confirms multiple rumors of a dedicated platform aimed at both casual and ‘hardcore’ gamers, similar to Game Center on iOS. Leaderboards will use the player’s Google+ account to connect friends added to a specific circles. One example was World of Goo, which allowed the player to see where they ranked not just in a public leaderboard, but a private one containing only his friends. The idea is that the integration will stimulate player engagement not only with mobile games, but the Google+ social network too.
