After the quiet collapse of their last gaming venture, Google seems determined to make an impact on the space somehow. To that end, they have reported been internally testing playable games – uncreatively dubbed Playables – that run within the YouTube app itself.
Unlike the ill-fated Stadia, the games available seem to be simple, proprietary arcade games that sound like they would fit right into the mobile gaming market of ten years ago.
It should be noted that Netflix has also experimented with implementing interactive content into their streaming service, most notably with the choose-your-own-adventure movie Bandersnatch. It was a novel concept at the time, but failed to see much expansion or iteration – and one has to wonder what Google hopes to gain by implementing more things that aren't video watching into their hugely popular video watching app. It could be a response to advertisers gradually pulling out of YouTube, as a way to find more reliable streams of revenue… but who's going to be forking over microtransactions for integrated YouTube games instead of just clicking on another video?
