YouTube’s free games catalog, known as “Playables”, has now been rolled out to all users. This collection of lightweight, free games was initially available to select users for testing and later to YouTube Premium subscribers. Now, it will start to appear in the YouTube app for all users, as well as on the YouTube Home page.
The Playables don’t monetize as paid downloads or via in-app purchases, so they don’t directly challenge the App Store model or break Apple’s rules. However, they do compete with the App Store’s free games, which are often downloaded by casual gamers and generate revenue via ads. For now, Google hasn’t signaled its intention to monetize its Playables.
The lineup of Playables includes popular titles like Angry Birds Showdown, Words of Wonders, Cut the Rope, Tomb of the Mask, and Trivia Crack, among others. It also features games from Google’s HTML minigames service, GameSnacks, which was developed out of its internal incubator, Area 120. Currently, there are over 75 minigames in the Playables catalog.
Players who use the feature will be able to save their game progress and track their all-time best scores. The feature should complete its rollout in the coming weeks.
Read more: techcrunch.com