SAN FRANCISCO, March 19- Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Tuesday that it would launch this year a browser-based video game streaming service dubbed Stadia that attempts to capitalize on the company’s cloud technology and global network of data centers. The technology allows users to play games through their internet browser or YouTube without waiting…
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SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Tuesday that it would launch this year a browser-based video game streaming service dubbed Stadia that attempts to capitalize on the company’s cloud technology and global network of data centers.
The technology allows users to play games through their internet browser or YouTube without waiting for content to be downloaded to a device, making access to games potentially as easy as watching a video from YouTube.
But Google offered scant details on timing, pricing or available titles for the service, which faces potentially tough competition from game publishers and from rivals including Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp.
With Stadia, the “waiting game will be a thing of the past,” Phil Harrison, a Google vice president overseeing the new service, said during a keynote presentation on Tuesday in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference, which is bringing together this week about 25,000 people who work in the video games industry.
