Tech Thursday – Google Moving Into Cloud Game Consoles Now?

An anonymous tipster has told of a Google job listing for a Product Manager for Games at the Mountain View, California search giant. The ad says it's a rare opportunity to grow a new business. Does this mean Google is planning on going big time with games?

Looking at the ad on Google's website, one of the requirements is a "Strong quantitative and analytical abilities with a deep understanding of gaming platforms." And another part says under the role, "You will design strategies for game distribution and discovery, player identity, game mechanics, and more." So this is making me wonder if Google is planning on doing a web based console gaming system. That would fit with their latest strategy.

They released a "Chrome Book" that was like their CR-48 prototype laptop that used just Google's Chrome OS and the services on their sites. So after reading this, and looking at what they did before, I wonder if that is where it would be going. It would have some advantages though.

One would be, no more worrying about damaging your game discs. No more scratched games, losing them or them breaking. It could be something like the Steam service where you can purchase the game and directly download it. Instant download the game you want, it's all kept track of online, and you mange the library from the console.

Cloud seems to be the way everyone is going now. Huge data centers are being built all over and miles of fiber and network cables are being laid down all over the place. I'm not a huge fan of cloud based stuff, but some of it does have it's uses and I could see this being a good thing, but it would also have it's draw backs.

What happens with games you have beaten or are tired of or just plain didn't like? You can take those to Gamestop or a pawn shop, and get credit for new games. The gaming companies hate that they don't get a dime of that. With cloud based, that would could hurt Gamestop. But they have also started to dip their feet in the cloud game world too. So it may not be as big a hit.

I am a little interested to see if that is what Google is looking to do. But we'll just have to wait a while before we know for sure.

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