YouTube is testing online playable games on its platform under brand name Playables. Google’s earlier foray into online gaming hasn’t been successful but the technology major is trying a new strategy with YouTube. Many people play light games on their mobile devices just to relax or kill time. And, Google is trying to capture market share in online gaming segment. YouTube Playables will be available on YouTube’s website and also on Android & iOS apps.

Google is still testing this feature internally. As per a report published by WSJ, Google has sent an email to Google employees to try Playables and give their feedback. At any time, Google keeps on running experiments and many innovative projects. Some of those projects never reach launch stage. Users will also be able to easily share the games with their friends on social media. If Google can get into multiplayer mode, that can offer additional boost to Google’s gaming ambitions.

As per reports, Google is facing decline in advertising revenue on YouTube and the company is looking for new ways to keep users engaged and create new niche for itself. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has been a strong supporter of Playables project. Currently, just one game named Stack Bounce is available on YouTube’s gaming platform. The game challenges players to smash horizontally stacked bricks with a ball and the company might add new games after getting initial feedback.

Google had earlier launched Stadia to compete in the online gaming segment. The platform couldn’t generate enough interest over three years and was closed by Google in January this year. Google Stadia was cloud-based gaming service that was closely integrated with YouTube and users could directly play the game after watching trailer. Online gaming generates strong revenue and interest has been rising over the last few years. Online gaming is also highly addictive and this can result in better advertising revenue.

As WSJ contacted Google for comments on Playables, as Google spokesman informed the publication, “Gaming has long been a focus at YouTube. We are always experimenting with new features, but have nothing to announce right now.”

As per a report published by technology news website Techlusive, "While the feature is still in early stages of development, when rolled out, the feature will be something on the heels of Netflix’s gaming service dubbed as Netflix Games that enables users to pick and play light games that are segregated on the basis of genre and maturity ratings on its web-based platform and via its Android and iOS apps."

As reported by TopNews earlier, Youtube is also working on a dubbing tool for video content creators so that they can offer their videos in different languages. The AI-based dubbing tool will have a voice similar to the video creator. YouTube’s Amjad Hanif said that 100s of video content creators have worked with Aloud team on this project. Hanif is confident that Google will add more languages in near future. This feature won’t put financial burden on video creators. And, Google is planning to keep it easy to use and simple for content creators. This tool is still undergoing testing with video creators and will be launched by 2024.