Kotaku: Google

Google Maps Becomes A Video Game

Pierre Bienaimé — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:30:00 EST

Coming to Google+ Games in February is what appears to be a virtualized marble balance game with a theme more grounded than what you'd find in your average dentist's waiting room; you'll be tilting your way through the streets of our own world. More »

Adventure? Hardcore Pornography? A Jedi Cares Not For These Things

Mike Fahey — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST

A Jedi might not care about the sins of the flesh, but Google certainly does, replacing the still for a developer diary with a steamy porn thumbnail in the search results for Star Wars: The Old Republic. More »

Battlefield 3 Captures Google's Zeitgeist

Brian Crecente — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:40:00 EST

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Rebecca Black, Google+, Ryan Dunn and... Battlefield 3? More »

Google Shoot View Game Shot Dead In the Street By...Google

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:30:00 EST

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Google Shoot View, an amusing little distraction cooked up by a Dutch advertising agency that let you wander the streets of planet Earth shooting the place up, has been killed by Google. More »

Google’s Latest Doodle Draws You Into An Old-School Sci-Fi Adventure Game

Evan Narcisse — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:40:00 EST

The masters of information over at Google are commemorating American Thanksgiving with a quaint turkey doodle taking place of their usual rainbow font. It's what you'll see if you're logging in from the United States. But non-American web surfers are getting something much cooler. More »

Google "Do a Barrel Roll" Right Now

Mike Fahey — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:18:00 EDT

Do it. Right now. Why are you still here? You need a link? To Google? Seriously? Fine. More »

Angry Birds Creators Become Their Own Angry Birds To Talk Up Google Chrome

Brian Crecente — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:20:00 EDT

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This Google Chrome ad has been out for about a week, but I didn't catch it until last night. More »

Google+ Adds Games, Minus the Social Games Annoyances

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:10:11 EDT

Google's latest stab at building a social network, Google+, has (as expected) added games to its ever-growing list of services. And while it may boast many of the usual social games suspects, Google+ Games aims for more privacy and less pestering. More »

Are Gaming's Biggest Portables Becoming Its Smallest Niche?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Last week's drastic, surprising price drop for Nintendo's 3DS gaming portable brought turmoil not just to the last major dedicated gaming hardware company in the world, but also the notion of portable gaming. More »

Google Says Game "Stream" Coming to Google+

Brian Crecente — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:40:00 EDT

We've heard rumblings that some form of, perhaps social, gaming was coming to Google+ but it hasn't really been verified officially until today. Found today under a description of the service's streams is this nugget: "If you're looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream." The link for Games Stream send browsers to a missing page. But it's coming, it seems. More »

The StarCraft Tournament Where Facebook, Microsoft and Google are Competitors

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:30:00 EDT

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Well now this is interesting. Sean "Day[9]" Plott, who we've featured here before on Kotaku, has helped put together a StarCraft II tournament. Only, instead of it being man versus man, it's company versus company. And the companies are big ones. More »

The Role Felicia Day was Born to Play

Sam Winstrom — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:40:00 EDT

Felicia Day prematurely answers the casting call for the Space Invaders movie on Google+. More »

80,000 Screen Shots Later, Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City Gets Google Maps Street Views

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:00:00 EDT

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Now you can cruise the seedy streets of Grand Theft Auto IV's take on Liberty City from the comfort and safety of your web browser, thanks to the efforts of GTA's most dedicated fans and some 80,000 screen shots. More »

Play Angry Birds Online, Right Now, for Free

Mike Fahey — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:40:00 EDT

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Google isn't above killing a little productivity to prove the power of its web browser. The search engine king has released a special free browser-based version of Rovio's avian-flinging sensation Angry Birds on the Chrome Web Store, just to prove it can be done. More »

The Android Dogfighting Sim That Even Michael Vick Disagrees With

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:30:00 EDT

A recently released video game for Google's Android platform has drawn the ire of the Humane Society for its violent content that includes the ability to train, electrocute and fight virtual dogs. Kage Games' Dog Wars (not pictured) has even been frowned upon by former dogfighting enthusiast Michael Vick. More »

Guess What Tablets Are Mainly Being Used For

Mike Fahey — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:20:00 EDT

Tablet devices are on the rise, giving tech savvy consumers a convenient way to check their email, search the web, read the news, and shop online, after they've finished playing games. A recent survey shows tablet owners are using their high-tech toys to play games more than any other activity. More »

Oh, Turns Out You CAN Run Gmail Using Kinect

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:40:00 EDT

Last week, Google thought it'd be funny to have an April Fool's gag based on Kinect powering, of all things, Gmail. Well, turns out you can actually do that. More »

PlayStation Emulator Yanked from Android Store — Foreshadowing PS Phone's Release?

Owen Good — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:30:00 EDT

ZodTTD's PlayStation emulator is on the Android store. The soon-to-be-released PlayStation Phone is an Android device. Can you guess the punchline here? More »

Angry Birds Set Free Today On Amazon's New Android Appstore

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:40:00 EDT

Amazon.com's newly launched Appstore for Android is kicking things off with a free download of Angry Birds Rio. Amazon's competitor to Google's Android Marketplace will be giving away premium apps for free every day, so it may be worth investigating as an alternative. More details at Gizmodo. More »

Google Now Guesses Release Dates for Movies and Video Games

Joel Johnson — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:20:00 EDT

Google has some pretty neat built-in tricks, and it seems they've just added another one: with just a quick search, Google will try to tell you the release date of any movie or video game. [Lifehacker] More »

Google Yanks GameStop's Arcade App From Android Market

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:30:00 EST

Kongregate Arcade, the Flash game app released earlier today for Android, has been pulled from the service's online marketplace. Why? Kongregate owner GameStop doesn't know, nor is Google saying. But all hope is not yet lost... More »

Forbes Predicts the Rise of Apple and Google Gaming and Decline of Sony and Microsoft

Brian Crecente — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST

In light of Forbes amazingly perceptive 2000 piece about the computers of 2010, Forbes' Paul Tassi decided to take a stab at predicting what gaming will be like in a decade. More »

PlayStation App For iPhone, Android Might Not Be What You're Expecting

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:00:00 EST

Sony will be releasing an official PlayStation app for the iPhone, iPod touch and Android based handsets, an application that's not meant to turn your handset into a PlayStation Phone. More »

Mirror's Edge Coming to Browsers

Brian Crecente — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:30:00 EST

Today Google made lots of news: They unveiled their new "cloud based" browser, they opened up a Google Store and, they started carrying a library of in-browser games including a new Mirror's Edge title. More »

Google Instant vs Video Games

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:00:00 EDT

Google launched a new search service today, which returns query results as you type them in. Let's see how it handles some of the most popular video game series. More »

Seems Google's Designers Played A Lot Of Gauntlet

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:00:00 EDT

Google's Android platform has a cute little robot logo, but what's this? The inspiration behind it is not, as I first thought, Metal Mickey, but is actually a Gauntlet game? More »

Google's 'Game Developer Advocate' Leaves

Owen Good — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 EDT

After a little over four months on the job, Google's "game developer advocate" is no longer with the company. The development follows his discussion at GDC-Europe of Google's revenue plans for games sold over its Chrome Web Store More »

Does "Net Neutrality" Mean a Golden Highway Paved By Gamers?

Owen Good — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:30:00 EDT

Though today's much-discussed proposal was long on talk of transparency, there are two loopholes in Google and Verizon's plan for "Net Neutrality" rules, and, yep, one of them covers "gaming options." More »

Google Invests $100+ Million In FarmVille Company, Prepares Google Games

Mike Fahey — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:20:00 EDT

Tech Crunch sources report that not only has Google quietly invested somewhere between $100 and $200 million dollars in FarmVille and Mafia Wars creator Zynga, the developer's games will form the base for Google Games, launching later this year. More »

Old Lady Complains To Google About Pac-Man

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:30:00 EDT

Not everyone loved the inclusion of a free version of Pac-Man on Google's home page. In fact, one old lady was so incensed she felt the need to call Google tech support. More »

China Rips Off The iPad With The iPed

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 28 May 2010 01:00:00 EDT

The iPad finally goes on sale in Japan today. The country's TV news have been covering the launch as well as another product on sale in nearby China: the iPed. More »

Google's Pac-Man Front Sapped 4.8 Million Hours of Productivity

Owen Good — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:30:00 EDT

The nearly universal reaction to seeing Google's playable 30th anniversary Pac-Man doodle was, "Well, there goes Friday." Indeed. A productivity firm has calculated the time spent playing Google's Pac-Man front at more than 4.8 million hours. More »

Kotaku 'Shop Contest: Google Tributes of the Future

Owen Good — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:00:00 EDT

Google's playable doodle acknowledging Pac-Man's 30th birthday on Friday created quite a stir. The game is still on the Google front through the weekend, but that got me wondering: What about future game anniversaries? More »

There Is Playable Pac-Man In Your Google Logo

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:20:00 EDT

Google has a proud tradition of modifying their logo image to commemorate special occasions, but for the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, they've gone from image manipulation to game creation. More »

Google's Chrome Web Store Brings Games To Your Web Browser

Mike Fahey — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:20:00 EDT

At the Google I/O conference today, Google revealed the Chrome Web Store, a browser-based application store where users will be able to download and install games like LEGO Star Wars and Plants Vs. Zombies directly to their web browsers. More »

Google Earth, Or SimCity?

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:20:00 EDT

Google Earth is pretty great as it stands, but I like where it's going even better. And that place is Simsville, with a stop-off at Liberty City along the way. More »

Nintendo's First Wii Game Powered By Google

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EDT

The Wii is getting a new family-friendly party game—at least in Japan—dubbed And Kensaku that features an unusual partner: Google. Nintendo and developer Shift will be releasing the Google search-powered game next month. More »

What Does Japan Really Think About Game Consoles?

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST

Ask Google. The Japanese language version of the search engine catalogues the most popular searches. Those automatically pop up when searching. So what displays for the Nintendo Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360? More »

This Is What 50 Android Games In A Row Looks Like

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:30:00 EST

The iPhone isn't the only smartphone that plays relatively good looking games, y'know. The Android platform does, too—at least 50 of them, as proven by this extended montage. And Google's giving them away at GDC... More »

Is Google's Nexus One A Gaming Contender?

Mike Fahey — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST

Google has officially unveiled its Nexus One Android Phone, and while it's certainly an attractive device, does it have what it takes to be a portable gaming platform? More »