If you aren’t using your mobile phone to check Facebook or read that interesting article your friend shared with you on Twitter, chances are you’re playing a game to pass the time. Mobile gaming has become a huge business, which is why Google plans on giving the gaming section in the Play Store a complete overhaul in February 2014. According to Android Police, today’s six gaming categories (Arcade & Action, Brain & Puzzle, Cards & Casino, Casual, Racing, and Sports Games) will increase in number to 17.
Here’s the full list:
- Action
- Adventure
- Arcade
- Music
- Role Playing
- Simulation
- Strategy
- Puzzle
- Card
- Casino
- Casual
- Board
- Family
- Trivia
- Word
- Racing
- Sports
Will all these sub-categories actually help? I hope so. App discovery is easily the worst part of any app store right now, whether we’re talking about Apple’s App Store, Google’s Play Store, or whatever Microsoft calls their store. Making granular labels is definitely one step, but the last thing anyone wants is for app stores to become complicated hierarchies that are difficult to navigate with items that are near impossible to classify.
What else should Google to to improve the gaming experience on Android? Taking a page out of Apple’s playbook, how about introducing a standard controller API so that the third party controller business can thrive? It’s kind of silly to buy a dedicated gaming machine like the Shield when you should be able to just buy a $10 Bluetooth controller to get your Need for Speed on.
