Google Play Games Freed From Mandatory Google+ Prerequisite

by Brandon Hill — Monday, January 25, 2016, 02:13 PM EDT

Google’s long-needed quest to untangle its core services from the mediocre web of Google+ is finally picking up the pace. The exodus continues today, as you will no longer need a Google+ account in order to access the Play Games service.

Google notes that gamers will only have to sign-in once using their standard Google account and will no longer have to sign-in for future games, as this process will become automatic. This means that gamer will no longer be presented with an annoying popup telling them to sign-in for each title. If you’re not a fan auto-sign-in, you can always disable the feature in settings.

If you’re a current user of the Play Games service, you’ll see no interruption and will keep your existing Google+ associated ID. For gamers new to the service, you’ll have to acquire a new Player ID which is separate from your Google account for privacy reasons, or course.

Google also lists some potential hiccups that developers might run into courtesy of these changes, but this would only be an issue if Google+ functionality is baked directly into their software. However, given the generally negative vibes surrounding the Google+ platform, we seriously doubt that this will be a problem for most developers.

Google says that this latest move was made to “reduce sign-in friction and unnecessary permission requests for players,” but we all know that this is just the latest in the agonizingly slow death march that awaits Google+.

Google took the first step to rid weary Google users of Google+ by reforming Google+ Photos into Google Photos last May and uncoupling the failed social network from YouTube in July.

Tags: Google Play, (nasdaq:goog), google+

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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