gaming

Android Police’s Ron Amadeo has the details on the new syncing, matchmaking, notifications, game invites, achievements, leaderboards, and integration with other Google services that are inside the new Gaming APK that is being rolled out to devices.

Fresh out of Google HQ, we’ve managed to score a copy of the newGoogle Play Services v3.1.36, which is very slowly rolling out to devices right now. For comparison, the current Play Services that most people have is v3.0.27. 3.1 is a massive update – the strings file, for instance, has more than doubled from 300 to 700 entries. This is how Google is pushing out all the shared files for Google Play Games.

To make a long story short, there is a lot of new stuff here and most of it has ties to Google Plus. Shocking, I know.

OnLive has just announced (via TechCrunch) new mobile apps capable of accessing their cloud game streaming service previously only available to PC, Mac, and OnLive console owners. Launching in the US and UK first, 25 console titles have been ported to the smaller screen with touchscreen controls, and almost all 200 of the service’s library of console quality titles will be playable via the $50 OnLive wireless controller.

The OnLive service allows streaming of console quality games like Assassins Creed, L.A. Noire, and other titles typically reserved for consoles like the PS3, directly from the company’s servers. The service has received mixed reviews, mostly due to inconsistencies in performance. The same appears to be true for the mobile version, with early hands on reviews highlighting the same performance issues common on PCs. These are “console-class” games, but not always a console quality experience. It’s playable, but really laggy.

The free app should be launching in the Android Market any second now, and will still of course require that you purchase or rent the games. Fortunately, any purchased or rented content is instantly playable through any compatible device. As for supported Android devices, below is the complete list courtesy of TechCrunch (who also says the Kindle Fire is supported):

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata declared Apple and iOS as the “enemy of the future” back in 2010. Not only was he right, according to new estimates for the U.S. portable game software by revenue from Flurry Analytics, 2011 seen Nintendo’s grip on the market slide even further as iOS and Android games triple their marketshare from 20% in 2009 to 60% during 2011.

The graphic above shows U.S. revenue for Flurry’s portable gaming category- a category that now includes Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, iOS, and Android. As you can see, iOS and Android have together taken the lead from Nintendo with 58% of revenues in comparison to last year’s 34%. In comparison, Nintendo DS held 57% during 2010, while dropping to just 36% in 2011. Total US revenue jumped from $2.7 billion in 2009 to $3.3 billion in 2011.

When comparing combined game revenues of the two veterans– Sony and Nintendo– with the combined revenues of the two new guys– Apple and Google– 2011 will be the first year where the emerging platforms dominate with iOS and Android estimated to take in $1.9 billion in comparison to the DS and PSP’s $1.4 billion. That accounts for a $200 million drop for Sony and Nintendo and $1.1 billion increase for iOS and Android from 2010. Perhaps investors were right to urge Nintendo to begin developing iOS titles.

As for Nintendo, the company who captured approximately two-thirds of the market in 2009 has seen their “enemy of the future” demote them to just a third of the market. Sony clearly has some catching up to do, but is hard at work on highly anticipated new handheld devices for 2012.

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According to a new report from comScore detailing the top smartphone platforms for mobile gamers, Android takes the top sport with approximately 30% of the market among 65.1 million mobile subscribers for the three month period ending July 2011. This in comparison to the roughly 21% held by Apple’s iOS.

The 65.1 million smartphone users included in the research played at least one game in the past month, just under 68% of which were using smartphones to do so. This accounts for approximately 27.8% of the entire U.S. mobile market. Interestingly, while Android was able to top the chart for total number of gamers, gaming on Apple’s iPhone seems to be reaching a larger portion of it’s user base with 61.7% of all users in contrast to 57.4% of Android users.

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9to5Mac told you about Gamestop’s plans to begin selling new iPhones, iPads, and iPods after recently beginning to accept the devices as trade-ins. Now, it appears that the company also has plans to drop a branded Android-powered tablet of their own.

In an interview with Games Industry, president of Gamestop Tony Bartel claimed the company is already testing the tablet that will apparently launch with a selection of pre-installed games and dedicated gaming controller accessory. Although, he isn’t disclosing who exactly will be manufacturing the tablet. The company also reportedly has plans to offer games over-the-air with a cloud service of sorts.

From the interview:

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We have already seen snippets of code revealing Games is headed to Google+, but this morning it has been confirmed. SlashGear reports on the Google+ help page there is talk about a Games stream, where users can find updates from shared games. Google+ Games will have a sharing aspect, and the Games stream will sum up what your friends have shared from within those games.There is no word on when this will be available.
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