Google invests $100 million in Zynga, with plans to launch Google Games [Rumor]

Talk about Google's desire to get into the games business has been floating around for some time, and now a big, juicy rumor says the company is starting to invest big bucks in those plans -- dropping between $100-$200 million at Zynga's doorstep. TechCrunch, which initially published this rumor, says the purported deal has not been finalized yet, though part of it includes using FarmVille and other Zynga games as the foundation for Google Games.

    Not only will Zynga's games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games. And I wouldn't be surprised to see PayPal being replaced with Google Checkout as the primary payment option. Zynga is supposedly PayPal's biggest single customer, and Google is always looking for ways to make Google Checkout relevant.

While Google might be spending boucoup bucks to form a partnership with Zynga, it's not immediately clear how this will affect 60 million+ devoted FarmVillers. The farming game is already on Facebook, FarmVille.com and Yahoo -- what could Google possibly bring to the table that would make people migrate to Google Games? Outside of turning more people into click-farming junkies and offering access to the game via iGoogle and Gmail, it's hard to imagine what Google's killer app will be. Then again, thinking about tending virtual crops on an Android phone makes things (a little) more interesting.

Google Plus will have social games, too, source code reveals

It looks like developers like Kabam and LOLapps might have been right in getting hyped about Google Plus. According to Engadget, Google is planning to integrate its now-nebulous Games platform into Google Plus. And it's all in the source code, baby.

When a tipster dug deep within the nascent service's--it just entered an exclusive beta test--source code, he found these words littered everywhere: "have sent you Game invites and more from Google+ Games..."

And then the code trails off into some alien language we can't bother trying to understand. But alas, Games and Google Plus will be one some day. Of course we already knew, thanks to a blatant job posting, that Google is serious about its games effort.

So, we still know just as much as we did before: Google Games is happening ... and that's about it so far. (Well, we also know that the games will be social, but that was a gimme, no?)

Google+ releases API to developers, more social games incoming

Google+ Games is cool with its no-nonsense interface and all, but the sad fact is that it only has 16 games. Compare that to the thousands of Facebook games out there, and it's clear that Google has to do something to compete with that selection. Enter the Google+ API, which was just recently released to developers, and could lead to a plethora of more Google+ Games.

The acronym API is short for Application Programming Interface, meaning it contains the tools for developers to create new applications within a given framework--in this case being Google+. Wired reports that Google will steadily release its developer API, meaning that it will be some time before it's feature-complete. And the features not yet included are, well, kinda vital.

For instance, at the moment developers can only create apps that publish read-only public posts. For instance, if a developer like Zynga released a new social game today on Google+ Games, your friends would not be able to interact with the News Feed posts you create. You all already likely know that this is essentially the bread and butter of Facebook games. It's how things get done in-game aside from directly requesting help from friends.

The reasoning for the omission? According to PC World, Google's Eric Chabot explains that this is because the company would rather improve Google+ over time, rather open up a "vacuum" with too many features at once. I'm not sure adding simple post-sharing interactivity would create a vacuum for the platform, but it's a first step nonetheless. What Google+ Games has to deal with more in its competition with Facebook's wide offering of games is scale. The bell rings on Round 2.

[Source: Google+ Platform Blog]

Do you think developers will flock to Google+ Games, even with a limited API at launch? Does Google+ Games have a chance against Facebook's Canvas platform for games? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments