Google's popular Chrome browser is having some new functionality baked in early next year, with plug-and-play support gamepads and more on the way. Google developer advocate, Paul Kinlan, revealed the news earlier today at Develop Liverpool.

The new features are due in Q1 2012, with gamepad support, camera and microphones, all without the need for plug-ins, Kinlan even hinted at the possibility for augmented reality games and player tracking. Another feature planned is WebRTC, an open-source video chat application that will run in the browser, with no plug-in required.

This is technology that could support an OnLive-style cloud-based gaming service, so we could see some very interesting things in the near future.