Many of us in the industry were expecting today to be the big moment in Google’s games business but that isn’t what we got. The tech and software giant’s…
Many of us in the industry were expecting today to be the big moment in Google’s games business but that isn’t what we got.
The tech and software giant’s hour-long keynote event this morning was a spec demo, with Google showing off all manner of features that are coming to its Stadia platform. There’s some impressive streaming tech on display, with Google clearing having some massive ambitions for the platform. Last year’s Project Stream demo with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey broadcast game footage to users at 1080p resolution; on launch, Google promises that Stadia will stream 4k gameplay at 60fps, a figure that will scale to 8K in the future.
There was some interesting integration with Google’s other services, such as a share button that appears on the Statia controller. This isn’t quite the massive innovation that Xbox and Sony vet Phil Harrison seemed to think it was — the PlayStation 4 has had identical functionality since 2013. Further integration with YouTube with its Crowd Play allowing users to play with personalities is cool, but something that Microsoft is already doing with Mixer via its Mix Play functionality.
Being able to stream gameplay to any and all devices is also very cool, with Google seemingly having jumped straight to the ‘platform not consoles’ mentality that Microsoft has adopted since mid-way through the Xbox One’s console cycle. Having the ability to jump into a game in just five seconds by clicking on a link is also very interesting, removing the friction that the online-focus of the games industry has introduced in endless downloads and patches.
