Google’s $35 media streaming stick keeps getting more useful. When Google launched the Chromecast last year it only allowed you to stream video to your TV from a few services including Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play Movies. Now there are hundreds of apps and services that support Chromecast.
Today Google announced Showtime and Starz are now supported… and that Chromecast isn’t just for music and video anymore.
There’s a new set of family-friendly games for Chromecast including versions Scrabble, Connect Four, and Wheel of Fortune.
The Chromeast doesn’t have a remote control and it doesn’t support Bluetooth gamepads. Instead you can install apps on your phone or tablet and use your mobile device to control the action on a Chromecast.
For example in Scrabble Blitz you pick letters from a virtual rack on your phone and scores show up on the TV. Multiple players can connect to the same Chromecast and take turns.
Other games include Monopoly Dash and Simon Swipe as well as Just Dance, which uses your phone to detect motion. Big Web Quiz, meanwhile, is a trivia app that uses Google Knowledge Graph for questions and answers.
You can find more titles in the Games tab of the Chromecast Apps web page.
Chromecast-ready games are available for both Android an iOS.
What they neglect to mention is Scrabble Blitz, Simon Swipe and Monopoly Dash are ios only right now.
It’s worth noting, I think, how this also impacts the Nexus Player which should also support all of these through it having built in Chromecast functionality. Or is it Google Cast?
At any rate it’s kind of a unique spin from other streamers for gaming functionality. You not only have the on-device games and the gamepad capability. But now also these Chromecast type games with a whole different control surface in your phone or tablet.