Google Play Games launches for avid Android gamers

Google Play Games just became much, much more useful for avid Android gamers. A newly released update to Google’s entertainment hub lets you see all your invitations; it’s now much clearer that someone wants to play. The upgrade also shows you a not-quite-live view of who’s playing, and a new Find Games area suggests titles you can try. Play Games still won’t compare with advanced gaming frameworks like PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, but it’s likely worth a download if your smartphone regularly doubles as a handheld console.

Google has pushed out a sizable update for Google Play Games today (yay, Wednesday!) and the changes finally make the app worth using. There are three major changes, and they are ones that I think everyone is going to like. There are a few other minor changes to the applications user interface, most noticable of which is putting the settings into the side menu, just as we’ve seen in Google Music. Those are always welcome, but the three bullet-point changes are what has our attention. Multiplayer invites works as expected. Now instead of only being able to join multiplayer games, you can see your invites. This puts everything in one place, making things easy to act on. The active players list gives you a look at who is currently playing each game, though it’s not real-time. It is a good way to see who has your favorite game installed so you can invite them, challenge them, then beat them mercilessly until they call you uncle.