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Google confirms new social gaming startup

Arcade is an "experiment" that will reportedly release its first game this summer

Google is building a social gaming startup, the company has confirmed, which currently goes under the name "Arcade."

The company confirmed the startup to Bloomberg, explaining that Arcade was, "focused on mobile gaming with friends." Arcade is being developed within Area 120, a division of Google where employees can create startups that might eventually become part of the larger organisation.

Beyond that, however, Google was reticent to confirm the details of what it described as, "a very early experiment."

However, sources close to the project have said that Arcade is led by Michael Sayman, a 21-year-old former Facebook intern. The first app is reportedly in the vein of a trivia game, and will launch some time this summer.

It is worth noting that Niantic Labs, the creator of Pokémon Go, was also founded as a team within Google. The studio became independent in August 2015, following the success of its debut title, Ingress.

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Matthew Handrahan

Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.