I've been thinking about Android and gaming, and now that the technological pieces are in place, Android could use a proper service for gaming.

I think it would be great if Google had the equivalent of a XBox Live Arcade, that differentiates games from other types of applications, makes selection, purchasing, storage, etc. easy, and well suited to the gamer. Things like leader boards, achievements, multiplayer, social interaction (think habbo hotel), could be built into this framework.

This service could even offer technological pieces to aid development, such as use of the Google App Engine to host multiplayer game servers, making it far easier for indie developers to offer this feature.

I suspect that Nvidia is trying to do this with Tegra Zone, and I wish them luck. Tegra Zone separates games from all of the other noise in the market, and does so in a way that is attractive to gamers.


Games can still have a place in the market, but this would be an environment more suited to gaming related concerns, and a look and feel that reflects that.

Take a game like Bastion (XBLA) for example:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...-drawn-art.ars
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX48y24t9iU
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Sh-b1jtX0

This is a very cool game that could easily be done on a modern Android device. Android is likely to have a far larger market than the XBox soon (if not already) which exposes plenty of gamers. It would be nice to entice these developers to produce Android content.

Oh, and on a competitive note, Microsoft has been mentioning XBLA for Windows Phone 7, and this is an area where they can dominate based on their experience and facilities. Of course, Ballmer seems clueless that he's holing this ace card. Google has a chance to beat him to the punch.