Google Android release notes: Play Games Services v1 is effectively over (final ‘empty’ SDK release)
A credited summary of Google’s June 11, 2026 release note: the Play Games Services v1 SDK has a final, non-functional release intended to force a migration signal. If you still rely on PGS v1, this is your ‘stop punting it’ moment.
Original update (source): Google Developers - “Release Notes” (June 11, 2026)
The headline
Google Play Games Services v1 just got its “this is dead” release.
The June 11 note says the play-services-games v25.0.0 release is the final release of the v1 SDK and it is a non-functional, empty library.
That is not a feature update. It is a migration flare.
What you should take from this
- If you are still on PGS v1, you should assume it will rot faster (docs drift, build issues, edge-case failures).
- The correct next step is to migrate to Google Play Games Services v2.
- This is the kind of “quiet” change that can break a release at the worst time because it looks like just another dependency bump.
Tiny win
If you ship an Android game:
- search your codebase for
play-services-games - confirm whether it is v1 or v2
- if it is v1, create a migration ticket with an owner and a calendar date (not “when we have time”)
You do not want this to become a Friday night build failure.
Read the original: https://developers.google.com/android/guides/releases#june_11_2026
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