Today, Google announced Google Play game services that brings a suite of new features that game developers can integrate into their titles. The biggest of them is cloud data sync. Game developers can sync their players' progress across devices and platforms. Yes, this feature works on Android and iOS. This is hot.

In addition to cloud data sync, the suite of services also brings achievements and leaderboards. Any game can now tap into a unified system for showing off your accomplishments. If you want a more personal grandstanding experience, Google also introduced both live and turn-based multiplayer features for game developers to utilize. Awesome.

Already, Triple Town, Modern Combat 4, and Eufloria HD have pushed updates to their apps that support the new features. But what do you have to do to get access? Well, as long as you have Android 2.2 or higher, all you need to do is update Google Play Services. That update is rolling out today. This is a fantastic approach to new features, as it unbundles new APIs and framework functions from the OS itself. Google is clearly as frustrated with the update process as we are and the crusade to remove as much of the Google pieces from Android as possible continues.