Get ready gamers: Google is ready to take on Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in the gaming space. At the annual Game Developers Conference the…
Get ready gamers: Google is ready to take on Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in the gaming space.
At the annual Game Developers Conference the technology giant announced its new Stadia gaming platform, looking to make it easier to not just make video games but play them on any screen you own including phones, computers and TVs.
Stadia, which will launch later in 2019, promises new ways to connect with games including a Play button on YouTube videos that will launch you from the video into that game.
Google demonstrated the new platform at the annual event Tuesday in San Francisco. While showing a video of the game « Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, » it was shown how a « Play » button on the YouTube video could transport the viewer right into the game.
Often a player gets the urge to play a game while watching a video, but has to boot up a game console or another program on their computer. This Stadia feature would get players into a game in « as quick as five seconds with no download, no patch, no update and no install, » said Google vice president and general manager Phil Harrison, a former Sony and Microsoft game executive who joined Google last year.
« Stadia offers instant access to play… (and reduces) the friction between getting excited about a game and playing a game, » he said.
Other features built into Google’s game-streaming platform include Crowd Play for instant joining and coordination of multiplayer games and Google Assistant-style help feature when players get stuck in games.
Last October, Google began Project Stream, a four-month PC streaming video game test that included Ubisoft’s « Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
