Google announced it is leveling up its multiplatform game offering in time for the Game Developers Conference next week, with graphics improvements leading the way.

In a press call, Matthew McCullough, VP of product management for Android at Google, said the team is stepping up its multiplatform gaming offering with exciting news dropping at GDC. He said Google has more than two billion monthly active players.

“We’re bringing users more games, more ways to play your games across devices, and improved gameplay,” McCullough said.

Google is making the Vulkan technology into the official graphics API on Android, enabling developers to build immersive visuals. And Google is enhancing the Android Dynamic Performance Framework (ADPF) to help devs deliver longer, more stable gameplay.

McCullough said, these days, games require more processing power for realistic graphics and cutting-edge visuals. Vulkan is an API used for low level graphics that helps developers maximize the performance of modern GPUs, and today Google is making it the official graphics API for Android.

This unlocks advanced features like ray tracing and multithreading for realistic and immersive gaming visuals. For example, Diablo Immortal used Vulkan to implement ray tracing, bringing the world of Sanctuary to life with spectacular special effects, from fiery explosions to icy blasts.

Diablo Immortal running on Vulkan

For casual games like Pokémon TCG Pocket, which draws players into the vibrant world of each Pokémon, Vulkan helps optimize graphics across a broad range of devices to ensure a smooth and engaging experience for every player.

Google said Android is transitioning to a modern, unified rendering stack with Vulkan at its core. Starting with the next Android release, more devices will use Vulkan to process all graphics commands. If your game is running on OpenGL, it will use Angle as a system driver that translates OpenGL to Vulkan. We recommend testing your game on Angle today to ensure it’s ready for the Vulkan transition.

“We’re also partnering with major game engines to make Vulkan integration easier,” McCullough said. “With Unity 6, you can configure Vulkan per device while older versions can access this setting through plugins. Over 45% of sessions from new games on Unity use Vulkan, and we expect this number to grow rapidly.”

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