Premium EA game to showcase Android 4.1 capabilities
updated 07:30 pm EDT, Wed June 27, 2012
Strike Force built in HTML5, may be showcased on Nexus 7
Electronic Arts has been showing off a sophisticated, multiplayer video game built entirely in HTML5, allowing users across multiple platforms to play against each other. The game is called Strike Force, and EA says it was developed over the course of five months, using a number of college interns. As The New York Times's blog reports, EA will demonstrate the game at Google I/O, Google's annual software developer conference, leading some to believe the game is intended to show off the gaming potential of Google's new Android 4.1 operating system.
Screens for the game show off three-dimensional graphics of a quality typically seen on mobile handhelds such as Nintendo's 3DS. Much of the in-game processing work is handled by EA's servers, allowing for PC users to play against tablet or phone gamers with reportedly little latency.
Currently, the game only works on Google's Chrome browser, though its HTML5 underpinnings should allow it to run across any number of devices and browsers. The current Chrome exclusivity, though, makes it an exemplar model of the gaming prowess said to be found in Android 4.1. While the game may not be released for another year, Google reportedly hopes that the ease of development for Strike Force will persuade programmers to make games for the new operating system. The thought is that attractive and cheaply developed games could prove to be a prime selling point for tablets running Android 4.1, including Google's newly-revealed Nexus 7 tablet.
Should Google prove able to sway game developers and attract customers to Android-powered tablets, that could represent a significant shift in the mobile gaming sector. Currently, simpler games like Angry Birds dominate the field, as more expansive titles require larger development teams and can only be developed for one mobile platform at a time. [via Bits]
