Android game categories to triple; move hints at future gaming ambitions

As rumors of a Nexus set top box swirl, Google shows love to game developers.

Ron Amadeo – Dec 10, 2013 8:19 am | 60

Both leaders of the smartphone market have lately seemed on course to burst into the home gaming console scene. Apple has been cooking the Apple TV at a low simmer for a while now, but it is arguably one software update away from becoming a game console. Apple has already added full game-controller support to iOS and recently bought Primesense, the makers of the technology behind the first-gen Xbox Kinect. And many iOS games can already use Airplay to display on an Apple TV.

There have been a lot of rumblings lately about Google jumping into the gaming space, too, with an Android-powered gaming console. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was working on just such a product, and a few days ago, The Information reported that a “Nexus TV” device would be out by the first half of 2014—imagine an OUYA, but not as terrible.

With that information in mind, it is hard not to read into a Google announcement that it will almost triple the amount of gaming categories in the Play Store. The notice, which was first spotted by Droid Life, states that the Play Store games section will jump from six to 17 categories. Developers are free to update their apps with the new categories now, but the most interesting thing is that the change will not happen until February 2014, a time frame that fits nicely into The Information’s “first half of 2014” launch window.

This is just the latest move in Google’s push into the gaming space, which has worked as a great set-top box trojan horse for Sony and Microsoft. Google has been trying to fit itself into the living room for some time now, with dead and/or dying products like the Nexus Q and Google TV, and successes like the Chromecast. The company has recently leveled up Android’s gaming prowess with “Google Play Games,” a service that launched at Google I/O. Play Games added Google-powered achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer, and cloud saves to the platform. Android natively supports controllers, keyboards, and mice, and with expanded game categories, it’s strong evidence that Google is starting to take gaming seriously. Right now it’s all signs pointing to the first half of 2014 for a big Google gaming announcement.