Google launching Android games center

A gaming center, complete with leaderboard, cloud back-up and multiplayer and challenger features, is coming to Android.

A gaming center, complete with leaderboard, cloud back-up and multiplayer and challenger features, is coming to Android.

What started as a rumor following one overactive hacker's teardown of the Google Glass app now appears all but certain -- Google is launching a games center for Android device gamers.

Google Play Games will let the Android operating system's growing gamer community save progress remotely to the cloud rather than on their devices, challenge other gamers in multiplayer mode, access and use leaderboards and be rewarded for achievements within games titles.

The dedicated bloggers at Android Police managed to crack the latest version of the Google Play Services code, which somehow leaked from Google's HQ, and have gone into great detail on their site as to what they discovered.

Although Android has all but caught up to -- and some fanboys would claim overtaken -- Apple in terms of its apps ecosystem and operating system features, a dedicated games center has been conspicuous by its absence yet is a feature that iPhone and iPad users take for granted.

Google Play Games is expected to receive its official unveiling at this week's Google I/O Conference in San Francisco and to go live in July.