Developers pulling games from Google+

Both PopCap/EA and Wooga have either pulled games from Google+ or announced plans to soon, citing low response and redirected resources.

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Less than a year since launch, a few developers are pulling their games from the Google Plus service. Wooga has already pulled one of its games, and is preparing to remove two more based on lack of response. Meanwhile, PopCap is getting ready to pull Bejeweled Blitz from the service.

Wooga's Monster World was shut down in May. The company is now planning to remove Bubble Island and Diamond Dash by July 1. A representative told Joystiq that the decision was simply because "we have a much larger following on Facebook and they are active users."

PopCap told All Things D that the company will "redeploy our resources to other adaptations of Bejeweled," and added, "Google is valuable gaming partner for PopCap and EA, and we'll continue to develop for Google platforms."

Two developers don't equal an exodus, but as ATD notes, EA and Wooga are the third- and fourth-largest social game companies on Facebook, respectively. The games directory still has representation from big companies like Zynga and Rovio, but if the response continues to be underwhelming it may not make financial sense to continue supporting the platform.

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  • reply
    June 18, 2012 12:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Developers pulling games from Google+.

    Both PopCap/EA and Wooga have either pulled games from Google+ or announced plans to soon, citing low response and redirected resources.

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 12:42 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 1:48 PM

        Honestly I never knew they existed either. But I really think that the majority of people who use Google+ are older adults who see a value in G+ and using it for more then just chatting it up with your friends. I use it to follow news, other photographers, and developers. I have a few friends on it but it seems like the people on it tend to be more mature then FB which has really gone down the crapper.

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 2:04 PM

        Isn't that supposed to be a feature of the G+ Games?

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 12:51 PM

      Sad trombone. This was half-assed attempt from Google to include games on their platform and that's how half-assed attempts usually end.

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 2:38 PM

        Google+ to me seems like what happens when a developer looks at something like Facebook and says "pfffff... I could write a better version in an afternoon" and attempts to do so.

        Same way Google Buzz was just some knocked-out-in-an-afternoon Twitter clone.

        And the fact that they keep failing seems to indicate there's more to it

        (note: I know Buzz and + were not knocked out in an afternoon, but they just feel like such half-assed products, like a lot of stuff from Google these days)

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 1:03 PM

      Guess they are not happy with the fact that you have to opt in to see games / game results. Heaven forbid Google keep users from getting spammed by "so and so got this high score" all day.

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 2:26 PM

        You have to opt in to see games / game results on facebook so this is probably not the case.

        • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          June 18, 2012 2:31 PM

          No, it's opt out.

          In order for the game to post on your wall you have to allow it, but if you have a friend that plays them all bets are off. Until you block/filter them (opt-out) your wall will be an unusable mess of crap.

          • reply
            June 18, 2012 9:20 PM

            It will say "this person is now playing frontierville" and that's it. You don't see the, again.

            • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              June 18, 2012 10:06 PM

              You'll see that message, or you'll see "CLICK HERE TO HELP YOUR FRIEND" or to add power points, or to reinforce, or whatever.

              I'm not making this up, I have friends that play these games-of-the-week. It's a constant race to block them before my wall is too shitted up.

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 1:50 PM

      maybe they will be replaced by good games :(

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 2:33 PM

        maybe google+ will be replaced by a good social network

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          June 18, 2012 7:13 PM

          google plus is a good social network, it's just that no one uses it

          • reply
            June 18, 2012 9:43 PM

            well then it's not a very good social network.

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      June 18, 2012 3:39 PM

      Honestly the only reason why I use G+ is for its circle hangout with awesome video chat.

      Further integration with google docs, and maybe even livestream to youtube could easily rebrand G+ into a production and project suite.

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 9:45 PM

      shacknews this happened like a week ago and I posted about it then

      • reply
        June 18, 2012 10:24 PM

        shacknews doesn't give a fuck. shacknews is reading it now

    • reply
      June 18, 2012 10:10 PM

      I thought Google+ was pulled already.

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