Game Makers Pull Titles From Google+
A Google spokeswoman said in a statement that "games continue to be an important part of the Google+ platform." Despite the withdrawal of the games, there are still around 40 games available to Google+ users.
Wooga's move was earlier reported by game-review site Gamezebo. PopCap's decision was earlier reported by AllThingsD, which like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.The withdrawals of the online games come as Google+ has struggled to engage users. Data from comScore Inc. earlier this year suggested that Google+ users were spending only a fraction of their time on the site compared with Facebook.Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said the game makers who were withdrawing are "probably not making money on Google+" like they do on Facebook.
When Google+ launched a year ago, the Internet search giant positioned it as a Facebook competitor. Google added online "social" games that allow Google+ users to play poker or wage fictional mafia battles with their social-network contacts or friends, just like they could on Facebook. Google takes a 5% fee from game makers for selling "virtual goods" to Google+ users, undercutting the 30% fee that Facebook charges game developers.
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Some games makers have said they are seeing traction on Google+. Kevin Chou, chief executive of game maker Kabam Inc., which creates online games for more serious "gamers," said in a February interview that his company is "very happy with Google+."Google's social-networking effort is partly an attempt to get people to share information about their personal interests, which is valuable to advertisers. Facebook has built a multibillion-dollar ad business because of such data.Google continues to double down on Google+. Earlier this year, the company converted the millions of business listings tied to its search engine into Web pages on Google+.
