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Google Is Building a Secret Social-Gaming Startup Called Arcade (bloomberg.com)
Google is secretly building a social-gaming startup in an effort to create fledgling companies within the internet-search giant. Bloomberg reports: The founder and co-owner of the new firm, called Arcade, is Michael Sayman, according to people familiar with the matter. Sayman is the 21-year-old wunderkind who started as a Facebook intern at age 17 and left that company for Alphabet Inc.'s Google last year. Arcade's first app, slated to debut this summer, will have some elements of a trivia game. A Google spokesperson confirmed the existence of Arcade, saying it was "focused on mobile gaming with friends," without elaborating on specific products. "It's a very early experiment so there aren't many details to share right now." The effort is part of Area 120, a division where select employees can work on small startups that live inside Google. Arcade's games have no tie-in with existing social networks. Users create accounts with their phone numbers, one of the people said. Google is considering it a social-media investment because once a game gets to a certain size, it's something of a social network by itself, this person said.
not a secret?
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
Just sayin'
Just don't go and try to trademark the word "arcade." Capiche, ya Google fucks??
It will be shit but quite successful.
Then either they'll drop it or revamp it and then drop it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
So all I have to do is give google my phone number....ahhh...NO. And no, I don't use any google services on my phone.
here you can be an "indie" google game dev in this closet over here, just don't quit and form a startup and make us risk losing talent when you grow up and decide you want to work on something lucrative
A reason to sign up for Google+!
You are going to have the groupies re-organize?
Sounds fun, what's the initiation like and why can't they leave?
Why not Carousel?
Have gnu, will travel.
The summary makes it sound like your account is tied to your phone number! That's utterly idiotic. The whole point of the Internet is to reduce the need for the existing phone system, and phone numbers, thus changing them into obsolete technologies that are slowly being phased out.
Requiring a phone number for an online gaming service would be like requiring the owner of a modern automobile to have a horse in order to drive their automobile. It's totally stupid and unnecessary for an online gaming system to require its users to have a phone number! Phones are old, obsolete technology that needs to be allowed to die.
Chrome is the best browser out there
LOL
You sweet, sweet child.
The head of "Project Arcade" is someone who's 21, who never grew up with actual videogame arcades. And the first thing will be a freakin' trivia game?
Why the fuck did they pick the name "arcade" to begin with?
#DeleteFacebook
Maybe he's trying to get a job as a Googledouche.
Is this google's first attempt at gaming? I know it is their 2nd attempt at a social network
Stop this.
It is a safe bet to assume any software coming from Google will be spying on you, full throttle.
The question will be, are the games good enough to make people install it even though they knew it is spyware?
He was a Democrat for 45 years. Old habits die hard.
didn't google kill that genre of games a long time ago.. especially on the internet?
and, btw, pick a different name. 'google arcade' won't be trademarkable... 'arcade' has already been used.. overused.. in the same market and market segment.
"Social" gaming?
Any concept with the word "social" in it ends up being cancerous. This will suck.
I thought you didn't have to leave the Arcade until you were 30?
Then you have to go to Carousel.
Their marketing team took infantilizing their customers to kindergarten age.
Arcade! Chat! Mail! Search! Hangouts!
It's obnoxious like a small child that gets a pet and only calls it "Dog!", and pretentious like taking something that has existed for years (arcades) and pretending that Google's version of it will be the defining one.
Seems retarded. Maybe if google pulled their god damn heads out of their SJW asses, they might realize it.
This is just another tool to get personal information from its users then once obtained sell that information to the highest bidder.