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Google Play Games Product Manager Boris Masis, otherwise known as BorisfromGoogle on Reddit just announced that his team has added two new filters to the Play Games app for Android and Chromebooks – one for filtering out in-app purchases and the other for filtering out games with advertisements. The project is known internally at Google as ‘Fireball’. I can’t think of a better name for this as fireballs burn things up and destroy them on impact. While gamers will love the idea of in-app purchases and ads being obliterated by a fireball, I’m sure that developers, who make money on these methods, are a bit less ecstatic. I suppose that’s why it’s an ‘internal’ name instead of a marketing tagline though, right?
As you can see below, the filters can be applied from the home screen of the Play Games app. All you need to do is to scroll to the bottom of the app and tap on them. Just keep in mind that historically speaking, developers who add in-app purchases and ads into their games will most likely have a much larger budget to make games that are more appealing. So, while filtering these out does provide a breath of fresh air from being inundated by these types of games, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will have more fun. Don’t forget – you can also stack filters to get highly customized recommendations too!
Boris has been taking suggestions regarding this update and what potential features we as users would like to see in the Play Games app going forward. One user suggested a filter for games which have native controller support built in. Based on his reply, it seems as though it’s something we could see in the future! We went ahead and requested a ‘Chromebook’ filter for games that have landscape, mouse and keyboard and even controller support all at once. As of writing, we did not yet receive a reply, but we’ll keep you posted! Let us know in the comments section what features you would like to see come to the Play Games app. Do you use this on your Chromebook?
