Google's Secret Weapon for Android TV: Games

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At Google I/O 2014, Google announced Android TV, a platform that will let users run Android apps â

Image: Mashable, Pete Pachal

By Pete Pachal2014-06-27 01:51:06 UTC

Even before Google announced Android TV on Wednesday, it seemed everyone was rooting against it. Here was Google trying yet again to offer a a platform for conquering the living room — the same battle its previous champion, Google TV, definitely lost.

Chromecast has actually done a decent job of cleaning up the mess left by Google TV. Chromecast is simple, cheap and popular, and can stream compatible Android apps to a tiny dongle that slips into a TV's HDMI port.

So why does Google need Android TV?

See also: 10 Best Indie Games on Android

Not everyone has an Android phone or wants to use it as a controller for their TV. People have been trained over decades to browse TV content on a TV, and the Chromecast interface isn't best suited for that.

But there's another reason Android TV has suddenly popped into existence. Games don't really work with the Chromecast experience. While Chromecast uses the TV as a controller for video apps, that doesn't work so well for games. You really need some kind of tactile controller — you know, with buttons — rather than your phone's touchscreen.

Android TV solves that problem. Even if the TVs and set-top boxes that will ship with Android TV don't include a controller, they can always use a TV remote control, which typically has directional and "enter" keys that can be used as movement and jump, kick or fire buttons.

You could use a game controller as well — there being no shortage of controllers that support Android. I tried out Android TV at Google I/O with one wireless controller, and the gameplay worked extremely well. I couldn't detect any lag while playing Ninja Hero Cats and Implosion, and the graphics looked fine, even if they were a few noticeable notches down from a console.

The game Implosion running on an Android TV.

Google seems to recognize Android TV's strength as a gaming device, including a dedicated menu for games separate from other apps. And since it's Android, developers should have very little work to do if they want to port their games to Android TV, especially if they already support game controllers (many do). There are tens of thousands of games on Google Play, and they account for 90% of the revenue from Android apps.

This is how Android TV can actually stand out from the Rokus, the Apple TVs and numerous Smart TV platforms from TV manufacturers. There are so many different ways to get media apps on a TV already, there's no way Android TV is getting anywhere with Netflix, YouTube and Songza (sorry, Songza). For a TV platform, media services like Hulu aren't even table stakes anymore — providing them just means you have a table.

Emphasizing games, however, is good table dressing. While it's probably not going to win over many hardcore gamers (that crowd already has a PlayStation or Xbox), casual gaming on mobile is huge. If Android TV captures even a fraction of that audience, it'll have served its purpose — or rather, created one.

Launching a smart TV platform these days is a tricky business. Between dongles, set-top boxes and TVs themselves, we already have more than enough choices for running apps on a big screen. With games, Android TV might score a few extra points with consumers, and that could be a win for developers — and for Google.

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Topics: Android TV, chromecast, Dev & Design, Google TV, Tech