The Godfather: Five Families takes an exclusive hit out on Google+

Google+ just made hardcore social gamers an offer they can't refuse. Kabam announced that its new ... family-oriented social game, The Godfather: Five Families, hits Google+ exclusively today, and it'll stay that way for the next 45 days. In fact, this is the first game to release exclusively on Google's games platform, meaning not both there and on Facebook, capiche?

The game, set in the Prohibition Era before the events of the first film, employs many of the same gameplay hooks found in existing Kabam games: build armies, sic armies against enemies or defend your friends asynchronously, repeat. However, this social take on the Oscar-winning franchise packs features that spice up the social strategy gaming formula, namely "Families".

Upon starting the game, players must choose to join one of five Families (get it?). The concept of "Families" introduces a level of tension to the alliances players make, because there can only be one Don. Perhaps it's thanks to features like this that Five Families is said to have enjoyed the most successful beta test in Kabam history.
Five Families in action
"The Godfather: Five Families has enjoyed the best ever beta period for a Kabam game," Kabam COO Chris Carvalho said in a release. "To support the exclusive launch on The Godfather: Five Families on Google+, Google will provide promotional support to maximize the game's visibility to Google+ users. This is our fourth title to launch on Google+ and they have repeatedly exceeded our expectations."

It's nice to hear that Google will somehow support Five Families, as the size of the network's audience could be a cause for concern, especially for a game launching exclusively on the platform. Then again, "hardcore" social gamers are said to be a dedicated bunch, and they'll certainly know where to find their next family.

Click here to play The Godfather: Five Families on Google+ Now >

Do you consider yourself "hardcore" social gamer? Do you plan on trying the game out on Google+, or will you wait until it hits Facebook?

Google: Games platform 'is not ready to handle' opening up to creators

There's a reason that Google+ Games has been a slow burn since its launch this summer: It can't handle much more. Speaking exclusively with Gamasutra, Google+ game developer advocate Todd Kerpelman said, "And that is our larger goal, to bring in more developers, and eventually open it up to anybody that wants to develop on Google+. Just right now the system is not ready to handle that."

Google has been quite exclusive with which developers it allows to bring their games onto Google+ Games, working with only the biggest names in casual and social games like Rovio, Zynga, PopCap and Kabam to name a few. (Well, there aren't many more than that, really.) While this is partially due to the fact that Google+ would likely be crushed if the gates were opened to everyone at once, the company is still working out how exactly it wants to handle developers.

"I'm not sure what our plans are - to be completely open versus something like an Apple-style, curated business - that's still to be determined, and we're still working it out," Kerpelman said to Gamasutra. "...The platform has only been out a couple of months, so we've got a way to go."

Gamasutra notes that, if Google opted to open up Google+ Games like it has the Android Market--which is essentially a wild west of games and apps--it would almost certainly have to handle counterfeit games. And that's something, according to Kerpelman, Google simply doesn't want in its online marketplaces anymore. (Who else just screamed hallelujah?)

This news comes just as a Google engineer name-dropped the Google+ Games platform specifically in a rant, implying that the initiative was an afterthought for Google. We're impressed by the platform's pristine presentation (and we're sure game makers love that tiny 5 percent price tag), but Kerpelman's right: Google's got a way to go, and updates like this are certainly steps.

Have you tried playing social games on Google+ yet? What do you think of the experience compared to Facebook and other networks, and what do you think it needs?