Google+ loses key partners as PopCap, Wooga pull games

It's strange to read the comments here on Hacker News that people are glad and "relieved" that games in Google+ are gone.<p>Put it this way, if Google+ remains a nerdvana, then it has lost. Google wants Google+ to be a household name. Not a niche product. It may well die a slow and painful death if it doesn't gain widespread use and adoption. Either way a nerdvana or equivalent means Google+ will never have reached its potential or what it set out to be. That's a huge failure in the scheme of things. Remember, Google changed EVERYTHING to center around Google+.<p>Google wants to remain one of the biggest and most relevant brands in technology to EVERYONE. Not just people interested in Linus Torvalds post comments.<p>March at GDC 2012, Punit Soni, lead product manager for Google+ games and mobile: "Games are key to the success of Google+"<p>Hacker News comments can be so out of touch with what's at stake, what is reality and what they view as "great" for their own skewed opinions. Hacker News readers are meant to understand intended audiences and project goals. Not feel relieved that games are gone.<p>Link Quote: <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168726/Nine_months_later_Google_game_devs_are_reluctant_to_share_success_stories.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168726/Nine_months_later_...</a>

Doesn't surprise me a lot.<p>When the games launched I went to try a few and they all demanded to know my personal information - name, birth date, etc. I was pretty offended by that and never bothered going further. I'm generally OK with targeted advertising but there is zero reason for a game to need to know my full name and birth date.

Well, that's one bullet dodged. I think the last thing anyone wants to see on G+ is games. I recall the Facebook UX being significantly (negatively) affected by the addition of so-called "apps".

G+ has attracted a different audience than FB so I'm not surprised that games aren't catching on.

No games on Google+? Colour me relieved - and this is coming from a game designer!

I'm relieved about games not being on Google + too.<p>But I also know that's not what Google wants. Google wants the herd. They don't want to be 2nd (or 3rd). And if you want the "herd" you cater to the herd.

I'm disappointed by this, but I have a feeling that Google is going to make a big gaming play. My money is on a 'game center' type app for Android at IO and that this will have some sort of tie in with Google+.<p>On a different note, I think that Google is basically implementing games perfectly on Google+. The reason people hate games on Facebook (and consequently, without thinking, want them gone on Google+) is because Facebook is constantly pestering you to "play Foo Game 2000 with such and such a friend", or "such and such a friend go 10000 points in Foo Game 2000". I've never once seen this on Google+. Gaming on Google+ is completely separate from its other functions (which are in turn just ways to tie Google's multitude of services together).<p>Google+ does social gaming perfectly, and if there's a tie in with Android gaming I think it could really take off. Imagine games that save your progress between the browser and your phone, and allow you to do all the social things that OpenFeint tries to do (but fails at).

There are games on Google+?

Given that Zynga was the biggest reason for Facebook growth second to nothing other than the Facebook itself, I can see how this could hurt the numbers.<p>Then again, we all remember Farmville. We can live without that on G+.

While I am not a big fan of games, I don't mind G+ putting games on it's network to cater to the current internet generation.<p>Just keep that crap out of my news feed (<i>cough</i> Facebook <i>cough</i>) and all is well.<p>I don't give two craps that you opened a fortune cookie and now you want me to open one.<p>Facebook will be a thing of the past. I logged in after a long time and the UI is still cluttered with game requests, fortune cookie requests, kiss requests all other garbage I am not fond of.<p>Yes I can ignore these apps, but I'd rather not waste my life click ignoring on each of these stupid apps. G+ has a good signal to noise ratio on content I SUBSCRIBE to and that is why I let them use my data.

One big reason I don't like FB is, it is having games. Even though I don't play games on FB, but my friends do. And every day I see lots of notification saying, your friend is playing that awesome game, score of your friend is xxx can you beat that, your friend needs your help for abc game.<p>I wished g+ don't have such craps at all.

Not gonna brag, but this was very easy to see coming. Here's a blog post I wrote last year:<p><a href="http://coryliu.com/post/8637665056/google-plus-sucks-for-social-game-developers" rel="nofollow">http://coryliu.com/post/8637665056/google-plus-sucks-for-soc...</a>

I've heard from multiple sources that online social gaming is tapering off as a market, to be overtaken by mobile gaming apps.<p>Perhaps G+ was skating where the puck was, instead of where the puck should be?

Meh, life goes on. It was only a matter of time, Google+ just hasn't caught on with the masses and I don't think that it ever will. The only people that use Google+ are Robert Scoble and well I'd hardly call that a successful website if Robert Scoble is your only user, hahaha.

I can tell you I don't use G+ to play games.