It"s hard to believe but the massive Internet company Google has never really made much of a push into the games industry. But that may finally be changing. A recent job listing at the official Google web site shows that the company is looking for someone to fill a new position: "Product Manager, Games." According to the description the job is a "rare opportunity to grow a brand-new business - Games at Google!"
The new games product manager will have to "design strategies for game distribution and discovery, player identity, game mechanics, and more." The job description adds that the person will also have to design "a great user experience" along with "building out key partnerships." The product manager for games will also have to "work directly with a critical set of early adopters, game developers. Interesting and impactful decisions involving social gaming, privacy, virality, business, and technical APIs await you and the strong, passionate team of gamers you will work with."
Google has previously dipped its toes in the game industry via efforts like Lively, a kind of virtual world division that launched in July 2008 but was shut down by Google less than a year later. Google has also invested some money into the popular Facebook-based social networking game publisher Zynga and has games that can be purchased and downloaded on its Chrome Web Store. Of course lots of games are also available to download on Google"s Android smartphone operating system. However it appears from this new job position that Google is getting ready to make a more concentrated effort to enter the games industry.