I don't have time to watch a 40-minute Android game development video. Can someone summarize what about this you think is better than Xbox Live so we can have an actual discussion about whatever this Google thing is.
Android play games service - Any developer has access to them, openly part of the android studio IDE. Which means that developers can easily add leaderboards to their accounts which compare scores with other players using google services and all developers can use achievements to give the player an incentive so that they can keep coming back to the game. Google even provides google cloud services with google play to allow cloud saves so that users do not need to start all over again if developers don't use their own cloud saving solution. Google even provides analytics to track where the user spends time in their game so that developers can improve those areas in the game where the user doesn't interact with them with updates. His also help developers know whether IAPs are effective where they have applied them in the game.
On the other hand, xbox live games require a long jarring certification process. This makes it hard for developers to integrate xbox live into their games which can greatly improve the players engagement with leaderboards and achievements. Xbox live does have gamer points which accumulate depending on how many achievements a player has however google have an even better implementation, achievements on google play earn exp which accumulates eventually levelling up an account. This is usually shown with a notification. Levels give a more rpg element and gives players a goal to reach whereas gamerpoints just accumulate. Players just get gamerooints for the sake of making it high. Microsoft does provide OneDrive cloud saves but they haven't been widely used in games in windows phone since Microsoft rarely even talk about the feature or even mention it anymore whereas with google, the cloud saves are part of google play services package which is why most games on android have implemented this feature. Even though xbox live is available across pc, tablet and phones, you aren't able to cross play with the devices , even with windows 10, they didn't say the feature is coming with mobile devices. On the other hand android is running on phones, tablets and TV's. No matter what device you are using, anyone can play with each other. There are less than 200 xbox live games on windows phone but there are countless games on android using google play.