The End of Google+ Games | Hacker News Reader

The End of Google+ Games

insidesocialgames.com

12 pointsrainmaker2310 comments

It might have done better if it was open. They only allowed a few companies in with the idea that later they would open it up. Treating a web gaming market like consoles did not in fact work. Chrome Store was open so this always boggled my mind, considering Facebook was open as well.

Google Games failed because Google+ is really just not that popular.

The article seem to suggest that they are just going with their new games platform which supports multiple platforms. Do you have a source on it's popularity?

No, just personal experience. Nobody I know uses G+ as a social network, and I also learned a bit about the social gaming audience when I interned at a social gaming analytics company.

its a bit of a shame, because the online social gaming platform is dominated by facebook, and any small player has to play by their rules. If there is another platform with similar user numbers, facebook would have to be "better" in order to compete and the overall state of affairs would be improved.

I am reminded of Steve Yegge's "Platforms" rant.

> Our Google+ team took a look at the aftermarket and said: "Gosh, it looks like we need some games. Let's go contract someone to, um, write some games for us." Do you begin to see how incredibly wrong that thinking is now? The problem is that we are trying to predict what people want and deliver it for them.

https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesv...

I wasn't even aware of their existence, but now, I feel better knowing g+ will not become a place where you have to block each game or person individually if you don't play games - like on the other social network.

From the beginning, G+ games were forbidden from polluting your stream. You only saw your friends' game activity when you explicitly went to the Game tab.

and that should bring another + to G+

I never understood why they choose to do games and not have an easy to use event planning system. IMO that's why G+ is now a ghost town. Event planning on Facebook is dead simple and is the only thing keeping on there.

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