Google to digitally distribute games through web-based app store

Former Joystiqer Ross Miller is currently on the ground for Engadget at Google's annual dev conference "I/O" in San Francisco, where the company just revealed its web-based app store for Chrome and Chrome OS. Aside from a handful of regular ol' apps and an interactive version of Sports Illustrated (paper? what's that?), Google debuted games for purchase, playable in-browser.

Plants vs. Zombies and Lego Star Wars are explicitly mentioned in the piece, but we can also spot Bejeweled 2 (also by PopCap), as well as Poker Rivals, Scrabble, FIFA World Cup 2010, and Who Has the Biggest Brain? (all by EA) -- a LucasArts rep clarified for us that the version of Lego Star Wars seen is actually this already available online game. We're not sure how much the games will be going for or even exactly how it'll work just yet, but we'll let you know just as soon as we do (there's a bit more info on the FAQ page). The web store is set to go live for developers "soon," but hasn't been dated for the general public just yet.

Reader Comments (31)

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

The possibilities are unlimited after the hardware accelerated browsers start coming out later this year...

Enter the world of HTML5 gaming.

uhhhh HTML5 isn't there yet.....give it another 5-10 years....ya know...when its FINALIZED

lemme clear that up a bit....I mean on the scale of the likes of Battlefieds in browser game or Quake Live

That's not what this is, I don't think. You can make games in HTML5 without Google, and I highly doubt they ported these games to HTML5 (which is absolutely nothing like your average programming language, i.e. C). Don't expect HTML5 to push 30fps HD games.

http://code.google.com/chrome/apps/docs/index.html

Okay so that's exactly what it is, it would seem. There must be the ability to distribute compiled software somehow though, I still don't understand how you would port LEGO Star Wars to HTML5 & JavaScript. Such a notion is absurd.

Well, they already demoed Quake II in HTML5.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/google-html5-quake/

@jsx92: Javascript is compiled in the Chrome browser. I believe Google has brought that technology over to the OS.

The real trick is obfuscation. HTML5 is plain text, so the dev has to protect their source code by encrypting it somehow.

Google's sole reliance on HTML5 is a big gamble. The standards committee doesn't move fast enough to react to critical changes. I suspect over time, Chrome OS will begin to rely on some sort of development model that can grow faster (such as Flash or Silverlight, or more likely they will port Dalvik... the java-syntax interpretor built into Android)

I'm tellin ya. Google's taking over the world.

It's not just for porn anymore!

Now with porn GAMES!

this is awesome!

I wonder why they don't just keep the Chrome OS store and the Android store the same.....and just make it so the store knows what you are using and gives you the appropriate app type.....hell maybe they are doing that on second thought....

at any rate this is good news for all those Chrome OS netbooks and Tablets coming out this year

Is it funny that the first thing that came to mind when I saw the guy in the bottom right corner was:

FROSTY!

This is the maturing of ChromeOS. When I first ran it, I didn't like it that much, but the newer development of apps and games to run on the platform looks to be good. Can't wait to see how this plays out.

No need for finalizing, we can enjoy the draft spec right now.

if it's google, it's free.

Buy 4 .99?!

NICE

I can't wait until I can get my email from a dinner plate, or tweet stuff from my Pez dispenser.

So PopCap's skipping over Android and going straight to Chrome OS?

So this is like Microsoft Zone from years ago except now it's called apps and you have to pay.

Anybody tried Chromium yet? Will it be the most viable OS to compete with iPhone OS on iPad? Just curious.

It's still really too early to tell. Even the latest release is an unstable version.

Chromium and chrome are almost identical since they share the same components, the only diffence is chrome is a program you can download onto Windows/Linux/Mac and Chromium is the program custom-built ontop of Linux so you can use it instead of Windows/Mac/Normal Linux.

This is an excellent way to capture the casual gamers which will make up most of the user of ChromeOS.

you already know the userbase of a OS that is not out? I for one plan on having Chrome on the laptop, but I still have a powerhouse gaming PC that runs anything under the sun...

As long as its not Flash based, 5fps gaming won't be fun.

Fable 2?

That's a double-negative, but I get what you meant to say.

@Dan: I believe Chromium OS and Android will converge sometime in the future.

Or it will be integrated in a MeeGo-based fork or something.

Google to digitally distribute games through web-based app store

Reader Comments (31)

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