"And it turns out it was a breakout year for Google Play Games," he continued, calling it the "fastest-growing mobile gaming network in history." Google says that three in four Android users are now playing games, which makes for a huge audience of gamers on the platform, considering that Google surpassed 1 billion total activations of Android devices last September.

According to Hartrell, developers are indicating to Google that they're now seeing longer play sessions and "higher monetization rates" on Google Play. "And as a side note, more broadly on Google Play, we paid out more than four times as much money to developers in 2013 than we did in 2012," he added, referring to developers of all apps, not just games.

Google Play game services, Google's cross-platform software development kit (SDK) for game makers, will now allow developers to build "game gifts" into their titles. Players can use game gifts to send in-game items to friends in their Google Plus circles, a feature that should improve engagement. Developers will also be better able to measure that engagement with Play Games statistics on the Google Play developer console. Hartrell referred to those stats as "easy-effort game analytics" with data on daily active users, leaderboard performance and more.

In addition, Google is adding iOS support for multiplayer gaming in Google Play game services, including multiplayer invite functionality in the Play Games app, which will allow for both turn-based and real-time multiplayer action across Android and iOS. An update to the Unity plugin in game services will bring in cross-platform multiplayer support, and Google is also introducing a C++ SDK that will support leaderboards and achievements in its initial incarnation. On the monetization side, Google is integrating Google Analytics directly into AdMob, the company's mobile advertising platform, and giving developers the ability to create specific ads to encourage in-app purchases.

Source

Hopefully it does help developers focus on Android. I'm not a big fan of mobile gaming in general, but there are many games on iOS that I would like to try out on Android

I wish people would make games for both iOS and Android instead of mostly just for iOS and android much later (if ever)... I would love to play phoenix wright HD and 999 as well as others on my S4

Ugh.. Google still finds a way to get my info while i don't wanna use any Google service..

And i'm one of the 25% that doesn't... Shame on me...

I am not sure how this is the fastest growing mobile platform in history when took them over 5 years to gross $1.3 billion, which is less than iOS app store's first year on the market.

Google makes cash through ads, not through store profits. The store is just another way for them to get a userbase for ads. 

Too bad there's nothing for Windows phones...

The marketshare of WP is too small for game developers to care. I own one as well as my second phone. 

I rarely play mobile games and only the free ones. I dunno about you but I don't get the same feeling when playing mobile games than playing with an actual console. 

Of course mobile gaming is bad compared to console gaming but its nice way to pass time when you're out and there's nothing else to do. 

I know, but even if Windows had 10-15% of the marketshare, I doubt Google would support Windows OS. Google and MS just don't like each other.