The recently released Q2 S.M.A.R.T. report by Millennial Media stated that more people are using their smartphones at home to log in to their social network sites or to just browse, with 59% of the respondents saying that they go online using their smartphones at home and 72% explore mobile apps at home with their smartphones.

This isn’t a surprise as smartphones are really portable, you can use in while lying down in bed without straining various parts of your body, and I know some people enjoy the company of their smartphones when they’re on the toilet doing their business, playing games, mostly (what else are you going to do with that time?).  The game console is becoming a thing of the past as they are quite bulky and you can’t actually play with them anywhere else but in front of your TV. The growth of mobile gaming is actually evidenced by the decline in console and console games sales.  Retail store sales of game hardware, software and accessories from all makers fell 26 percent to $707.7 million, the lowest level since October 2006, from $961.3 million a year earlier.

This love for our smartphones is seen as the major factor contributing to the predicted $11 million in mobile gaming revenue for 2014.  And with more differentiation of social gaming and serious gaming by game developers themselves, they are hooking more players to become addicted to their games, in new and relatively exciting ways.

Google knows how important gaming is, whether social or serious gaming. That’s why it wasn’t a surprise when they released the Games button in their Google+ stream.  The launch of Google+ Games comes with a dozen or so games from popular games developers such as Zynga, PopCap, GameHouse, wooga and the likes.  Here is the list of the first wave of games available in Google +.

Yes, the game selection includes the infamous Angry Birds game from the company Rovio, which is rumored to be getting a funding that may increase their valuation to $1.2 billion.  Though Rovio seems like they have no plans of releasing other games, they are exhausting all options to make money out of Angry Birds, from plush toys to a movie and TV show.

Google+ game may get traction as more game developers are not happy with Facebook’s new terms and policies, and are willing to abandon Facebook because Google+ has a better offer.  Google only charges game developers 5% while Facebook charges 30%, and it doesn’t seem like they are taking advantage of game developers.

“Facebook brought this on itself by demanding such onerous terms,” said Sam Hamadeh, chief executive at PrivCo. “This has created a lot of animosity in the app development community and Google+ is well poised to capitalize on Facebook’s overstep by offering lower pricing, looser terms, and no exclusivity.”

But Facebook will not just let Google swipe their game partners, as they have revamped their gaming platform with a more streamlined, engaged App Canvas page, including a ticker for game updates as well as a Fluid Canvas that increases the real-estate/property view for games like Cityville, Monster World, Mystery Manor.

Jared Mergenstern wrote about the recent update on The Facebook Blog, “You can now control who can see these stories for each individual app in your Settings.  If you want friends to see you’re playing one game but not another, you can change that. You’re also able to limit visibility directly from the ticker by clicking ‘X’ on a story to remove it.”

Google+ is still a long way from what Facebook has already achieved, but with their very low cut on game developers’ revenue and existing mobile OS, they may one day pass Facebook’s current status.  We’ll just have to see as the dice roll-out.