Google Courts Game Developers with Free Devices and a New Portal

Google has started courting game developers in the past few months, boasting the capabilities of HTML5, WebGL as well as its Android platform. The company believes it has a lot to offer to game developers, from technology to revenue sources, so it launched the Game Developers Central website to showcase what Google can do for them.

"From browser technologies to cloud storage solutions, Google has many products and services that can be useful to game developers," Ian Ni-Lewis, from the Game Developer Relations Team at Google, wrote.

"Until now, it was hard for developers to track down information on how Google can help them build, distribute and monetize their games. This is why we are excited to release Google Game Developer Central," he announced.

This was not the first time Google has gone after game developers, but it's definitely the culmination of previous efforts. The popularity of games on Facebook or on mobile devices is testament to the power of games, and Google wants to be a part of it.

"Google Game Developer Central provides an overview of Google products and services that are particularly relevant to game developers. You’ll be able to explore different platforms like Chrome, learn about technologies such as GWT, WebGL and HTML5, and check out monetization options like AdMob," Google explained.

Google has a booth at the Game Developers Conference, which is still ongoing, and had a couple of presentations there as well. The company is pretty serious about its game developer relations, on the first day it offered attendants a free Cr-48 netbook.

This of course, was meant to highlight of viability of the web as a gaming platform. HTML5 is making headway in this area, Mozilla, Facebook and others are promoting HTML5 gaming as well, and WebGL is almost ready for the prime time.

On the second day, Google offered developers either a Motorola Xoom tablet with Android 3.0 Honeycomb or a Nexus S. Mobile games are another huge opportunity and the Android Market is already full of them.