Google Unveils Chrome Web Store With Support From EA Games, Others

At a press event today, Google unveiled the details of its Chrome Web Store, an HTML5-based app marketplace that operates on top of the Chrome web browser, including games from Electronic Arts and numerous other developers. "People want to get paid for their apps, but they don't want to trust a small, independent developer. That's one of the problems we wanted to solve with the Chrome Web Store," Google VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai said at the event, as reported by Engadget. The store, which launched today alongside the announcement, already lists 195 titles in the Games category, including offerings from Namco (Burger Time Deluxe), Zynga (FarmVille) and Digital Chocolate (Millionaire City) designed to run seamlessly inside the newest version of Google's web browser. But EA Games content was featured at the Web Store's unveiling, with EA COO John Schappert showing off a new version of the company's Pogo Games balloon-popping title Poppit as a free download for the platform. The game will be built-in to the upcoming version 9 of the Chrome browser. "We were able to convert into a state-of-the-art HTML5 web app in less than 48 hours," Schappert said at the event "It's blazing fast. It's simply the fastest Poppit we've made." Other EA titles available for download on the Chrome Web Store include existing web games such as FIFA Superstars, Lords of Ultima, Mirror's Edge 2D and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. The latest version of the Chrome browser now supports hardware acceleration for in-browser apps, Google announced today. Google Director of Product Management Brian Rakowski showcased a WebGL demo of a 3D, HTML5 aquarium running in the browser and powered by the computer's GPU. Google also used the event to reveal details of the Chrome operating system, a netbook platform focused on synchronizing offline work with the cloud-based applications. The operating system is slated for release in mid-2011.