They are different tasks, but I'm not seeing any really clear descriptions of what DeepMind can and cannot do. It's possible that their software is only good at a very specific kind of thing that happened to be in line with what Google wants. And for all we know, they could be at a complete loss as to how to progress.

I mean, to what extent did they restrict what it means to be an "arbitrary game"? I highly doubt their software can play Pictionary, for instance, but I haven't found anything that really explains their limitations.

Because of this, I am leaning towards the cynical and assume it's just hype, and not actually that incredible.