Google adds cross-platform multiplayer to its gaming services

Google is beefing up its gaming services with new features for Android and iOS. Game developers can now add cross-platform multiplayer for real-time and turn-based games, so iOS and Android users will have more opportunities to play together. Google isn’t the only company to enable cross-platform multiplayer on mobile devices. Other developer solutions such as Scoreloop are also available, and some games such as Zynga’s Words with Friends use Facebook to connect friends across Android and iOS. 

Google has announced some new updates for its Google Play Games cross-platform SDK for game devs, and they should make it a lot easier for developers working on titles aimed at iOS, Android and the web to build experiences that span all of the above. First, Google has expanded its multiplayer support to include iOS, which means that turn-based and real-time combat and play can take place on both platforms now, and there’s also an updated Unity plug-in to go along with that. There’s also a new achievement and leaderboard plugin to support both platforms, meaning that you compare yourself against the entire population of a game’s mobile players, instead of just on one platform or the other.