Google to give Android gaming attention in future updates

Monday, 11 October 2010 08:01

Google's Andy Rubin sat down with PC Mag to talk about Android in general from the current status of it to the future version of Android "3.0", a.k.a Gingerbread. Gaming on Android came up in his answers and it look that Google hasn't been ignoring it as Andy Rubin comes straight out and says that Android gaming has been underserved so far.

When asked what some of the themes and ideas that would be coming into the next version of Android, Andy Rubin responded by saying that Android gaming has been underserved.

"I think gaming is an area that I think is underserved right now. We're actually going through a reinvention of casual gaming. If you look at a console game like an XBOX or a PlayStation or a Nintendo, I think it's very, "sit down and try to get to the maximum level possible." On cell phones and devices that are battery operated, I think there's more kind of "what do you do in between the times when you're doing something?" It's more about running a game to fill time rather than running a game to be a dedicated event" - Andy Rubin

He further went on to mentioning support for gaming through various features including the browser.

"If we were to carefully look at what new features and functionalities in the platform that we would need to support all forms of gaming across the entire spectrum, I think that would probably be an interesting thing to pay attention to. I think that more blending of the Web and native is probably interesting. If you look at things like HTML5 support, more features, more functionality, our browser right now is probably one of the best performing browsers on a mobile phone. It's the fastest, it's the smallest. We'll be adding more functionality to the browser to give it an updated user experience as well."

It seems the overall view of the next version of Android is going to be social and gaming related in various ways. It makes sense too as the last version was almost completely based around performance increase with things like the JIT compiler being native in Android and now with Flash/AIR support the realm of gaming has only increased.

With the advent of the App Inventor we saw a Game Client make its appearance in the list of features albeit deactivated at the moment. Combine that with recent purchases (Jambool/SocialGold) and investments by Google (ngmoco, Zygna) and various other departments of Google such as their Ventures department I wouldn't be surprised if Android got the Game Center type feature we hinted would happen in a previous article. Almost all of their recent purchases and investments have been in regards to social gaming.

It looks like Android gaming is going to continue to get stronger with devices coming out with Tegra 2 chips, tablets, Unreal Engine support and now Google committing some attention to Android gaming and social aspects of the Android OS. Fun times lay ahead. Feel free to check out the full interview with Andy Rubin with PC Mag through the link below.

Website Referenced: PC Mag

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Tags: Gaming News

Andrew Huff

Andrew Huff, otherwise known as ExtremeT on this site, is the Founder and Chief Editor here at DroidGamers. When not writing and editing articles on DG, testing games, new Android devices, playing lots of video games in general and geeking out on general mobile gadget news, you can find him spending time with his wife and 2yr old son.

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