At GDC 2016, Google has announced some interesting new features, both within and without its Google Play's game services.

The highlight is that developers can now integrate Google's live streaming technology - currently only available via the standalone YouTube Gaming app - directly within their games.

This will provide players with seamlessly video recording capabilities without having to launch a secondary app, and provide strong competition for mobile game streaming services such as Mobcrush and Kamcord.

Playable ads

Another video-related move is the new Search Trial Run Ads.

This is triggered when someone searches for a game via Google search. The result will provide the option to Try Now, with the game launching within the browser and gameplay running for up to 10 minutes.

Such interactive adverts have been around for years, without gaining much traction. Partly this is because it only works for certain types of games - Google is highlighting it with match-3 puzzler Panda Pop from SGN - while there have also been issues over the quality of the experience, which effectively sees the game being streamed to the browser. 

So it will be interesting to see if Google has fixed the latter as the service rolls out in the coming weeks.

Better ads

Other announcements also revolve around improving user acquisition within Google services such as the AdMob network. It now supports thirdparty rewarded ad networks such as AdColony, AppLovin, Chartboost, Fyber, Upsight and Vungle.

Google is also rolling out a full screen portrait video ad format, a section on Google Play which highlights cool indie games, and improved user targeting and predictive analytics tools.