Google Chrome

Google Chrome is apparently working on a page for games that includes ‘Snake’

Ben Schoon | Sep 24 2019 - 12:11 pm PT

Google Chrome is definitely a browser before anything else, but over the years, it’s added a lot of other functionality. Now, we’re seeing evidence that Google is working on a sort of games page to Chrome that includes its take on the classic “Snake.”

At this point, I think everyone is familiar with the offline endless runner “Dino” game in Chrome. It’s even been immortalized as a plastic toy. However, this new “games page” for Google Chrome appears to be something different.

ChromeStory spotted code that adds a games page that acts as a sort of hub within Google’s browser. Work on this addition is currently referred to with the code name “joy,” which includes mention of a new chrome://games page within the browser. It’s unclear what this would look like, but on Android, this functionality would apparently appear as a section in the “Top Sites” page.

There’s a lot of room for speculation as to what this could be. Our own Kyle Bradshaw also took a look at the commits and found evidence that this could be primarily for Android’s version of Chrome, and that it could be a sort of rotating selection of games. It could be that the browser downloads an “Editor’s Choice” for the user to play. The first of the images below comes from PROXX, which is a game similar to Minesweeper that’s based on the web. The game is built by “Google Chrome Labs” and the icon was found alongside this project for Chrome.

Interestingly, ChromeStory also found that chrome://snake is under development. Notably, the dino game can be accessed at chrome://dino. This could just be a demo, but there are a few images below that show that Google is working on what appears to be some user-facing portions of the game. There are a lot more assets beyond what’s found below, though.

These icons were found along with the new project in Google Chrome and hints at a “Snake” game

Right now, we’re not entirely sure what Google has in store, but clearly there’s a focus on web games being highlighted to some extent. Currently, none of these pages work even in the latest Canary versions of Chrome. There’s no timeline as to when this new games page could appear in Google Chrome.