Yet another step towards the grave for the faltering social network: Google+ has consciously uncoupled from Google Play Games. You are now free to sign up to games from the Play Store using any name you choose to with Gamer ID.
After the latest update of Google Play Games users will no longer be forced to automatically use the name on their Google+ profile. And the best bit is that players won’t have to sign in each time they download a new game; as with Apple’s Game Centre, once you’re signed in you stay signed in.
While this is a small change it is one in a series of untetherings over the past year or so: Google+ had embedded itself into everything from Maps to YouTube, much to the annoyance of long-time users. It started messing up features such as map share: rather than emailing a link to a location or set of directions, it offered to share on Google+ where literally nobody you know would ever see it.
Finally, Google+ has broken up with us and it better not come back to collect its stuff. We threw it out.
