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Arcade is a hush-hush social gaming startup that Google is developing: report

A file photo showing a video games arcade room at a Google campus

Google has teamed up with the wunderkind who brought the world photo word game 4 Snaps to develop what appears to be a social-gaming startup.

Arcade is the name, trivia is the game.

Google is ever expanding and one of its latest projects, according to a report in Bloomberg, is a social-gaming startup founded by Michael Sayman.

The mobile application entrepreneur and software engineer, famous for creating 4 Snaps (one of the fastest growing mobile game apps built by a teenager), has set his sights on a new project rumored to “have some elements of a trivia game,” Bloomberg notes.

It's all a bit secret but Bloomberg states that a Google spokesperson has confirmed the app's existence, saying it was “focused on mobile gaming with friends,” although nothing was specified. “It's a very early experiment so there aren't many details to share right now.”

Arcade is believed to be part of Google's workshop, Area 120, for experimental projects. It is not designed to be connected to any existing social network and apparently users will simply need to create an account with their phone numbers.

Sayman, 21, left Facebook Inc for Alphabet Inc's Google last year, originally to be a product manager for the Google Assistance team. It seems like he has gone back to doing what got him noticed in the first place -- developing games. As part of Area 120, the entrepreneur receives a budget to hire staff as well as for marketing, design and finance to create his own startup with less risk. Whether these projects make it into Google's product line all depends on the success.

While it's still early days, Arcade's first app may debut this summer, according to Bloomberg's source.