Google+ Games Round the Corner to Hit Facebook?s Popularity?

Search engine giant Google is reportedly set to launch a social gaming network this month to counter the popularity of Facebook games.

Google is expected to take a less-than 30 percent cut of the revenues, which will rupture the previous industry standard that was created by both Facebook and Apple.

The new games on Google+ will come as a new outlet for gamers and developers and will also let developers respond to Facebook after it was earlier learned that Facebook’s relationship with Zynga, the gaming industry leader, was complicated.

“The Facebook Platform will be integrated into the Zynga Mobile Games and Zynga Properties and FB will be the sole and exclusive Social Platform,” reads one of the clauses in the company’s 600-plus-page update to its original IPO document filed earlier.

The original document, however is massive, spanning over a dozen pages covering subjects such as ad revenue agreement and Zynga’s constraints while using Facebook Credits in which Zynga can sell gift cards and other stricter exclusivity clauses surrounding games. Google is one of Zynga’s major investors.

The new Google+ games are expected to have major technical differences and the platform has been described as a ‘native client,’ which means Google will be hosting these games on its own servers and not on developer’s. The games are also expected to provide faster game-play and lesser bugs than the games on Facebook.

Google, however, has declined to comment on the development.

The search engine giant already retails games like Angry Birds via its Chrome Web Store and has also invested in Kabam, a Redwood-based interactive entertainment company that is flourishing in social gaming, developing and publishing massively multiplayer social games.

Google earlier launched its In-App Payments, which allows developers to incorporate payments within any Web application and is thought to be the right kind of technology to run a social game network. The In-App Payments are available to developers who have a U.S. bank account and will work in more than 140 countries, according to an All Things D report.

Google+ launched on June 28, 2011 in an invite-only ‘field testing’ phase. The service has incorporated social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and has introduced new services such as Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles. The New York Times have declared it Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook, which had over 750 million users in 2011.