Rovio Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka at Google I/O

"Mighty Eagle" from Angry Birds developer Rovio on stage at Google I/O

GOOG Jul 21 2011, 05:20 PM EDT
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Google will a game network that ties into Google+ very soon, and it could have two huge advantages over Facebook: more money for developers and faster performance.

Sources tell Tricia Duryee at AllThingsD that the game network is launching soon, and Google will plan on taking less than 30% of the money for game downloads and in-game purchases. That would break the standard pricing that Apple and Facebook have set on downloadable apps.

A bigger cut for developers means they'll be more likely to port their games over to the new network.

Google just launched in-app payments a couple days ago which would give developers a way to make money from selling items in the games.

The game platform will also reportedly use Google's Native Client technology, which allows games to run directly within the Chrome browser (or Chrome OS) -- with no plug-in required. That should mean better performance than the Flash games that are common on Facebook.

Google showed off Native Client at the I/O developer conference earlier this year, and game development tool builder Unity posted a good explanation of why the platform is so powerful after the show ended.