Google Chrome will add native gamepad support, more video and audio hooks

Google's Paul Kinlan spoke at Develop Liverpool last week, and revealed that Google is aiming to add some more plug-and-play hardware support to its Chrome browser, including gamepad support. The update will also add connections to webcams and microphones, which means that Chrome could, after these updates, directly use those accessories for games and other services.

It should probably be noted that Firefox's API already allows for gamepad support, so Chrome here is just filling out the alternative. Google is also planning to cook in native support for WebRTC, an open source video chat initiative that it has helped run in the past. At this point, developers are basically just lining up APIs to work together, but setting up these built-in solutions could eventually help bring cloud gaming services right into a native Internet browser.