Google: HTML5, Adobe Flash Can Coexist

While there's much talk about a supposed power struggle between Adobe's Flash and the to-be-finalized HTML5 web standard, there's no reason that the two technologies can't coexist in relative harmony, Google+'s game developer advocate recently told Gamasutra. Asked if multiple web technologies could flourish side by side, Google's Todd Kerpelman replied, "Yeah, I don't see why not." Google launched its Facebook competitor Google+ this summer. In August, the company announced its first slate of games for its social network, including Rovio's Angry Birds and Electronic Arts' Dragon Age Legends, among others. In Kerpelman's eyes, the competition between HTML5 and Flash is not necessarily a zero-sum game. But the true outcome will be up to web-goers and web developers. "I think there's probably a limit in terms of the number of plugins a user wants to have to install, and from a developer's perspective, they don't want to have to port a game to four different technologies, obviously," Kerpelman conceded. "That being said, I do think it's possible for all these technologies to live together. I guess we don't take the approach of 'in order for one technology to succeed, others need to fail,'" he explained. "It certainly is possible for several technologies to be viable and workable. If the players are happy, and the developers are happy, there's no reason why they can't all be successful." Gamasutra will have more from Kerpelman in an interview to be published Friday.