Ahead of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco this week, Google has announced a number of changes and improvements it is making to Google Play Games. In addition to adding support for cross-platform multiplayer gaming with iOS, the search giant will also offer virtual gifting and support for multiplayer game invites.

Google is expected to make gaming a major focus for its upcoming “Nexus TV” following its acquisition of Green Throttle Games, the company behind the Atlas game controller for Android.

The search giant’s upcoming set-top box will reportedly compete with Android-powered consoles like the OUYA, allowing users to play smartphone and tablet games on their TVs.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have just disclosed that mobile superhero fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us has gotten a big bad exclusively to the Android and iOS versions of the game: Darkseid.

To celebrate, the game will have a special challenge event taking place in game, giving you a chance to compete in battles that will reward you with an exclusive Gold character card. The challenge will run from March 6 through the 24th.

Twitch, the hugely popular video streaming service for gamers, today announced a new SDK that will allow Android and iOS developers to integrate Twitch into their games. It will give users the ability to broadcast, capture, and archive their gaming sessions on their smartphones and tablets.

Google released five simple games for Glass, the company’s buzz-worthy wearable computing device.

In a post on the Glass Developers blog, a spokesperson wrote, “We hacked together five simple games that experiment with the unique features of Glass and demonstrate some of the possibilities for gaming.”

With Tennis, Balance, Clay Shooter, Matcher, and Shape Splitter, Google is making a play for the profitable mobile game market, one that regularly outpaces both traditional gaming revenue as well as other forms of media.