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Google is hosting a special gaming announcement set to take place at this year's GDC 2019. It's finally time to see what the company has up its sleeves, and what they have planned for the future in regards to gaming. The stream is now live, and you can watch the above video, or check back here to read GBAtemp's live updates.

Google wishes to build a game platform for everyone, bringing together all forms of gamers. This has been named the Stadia.

The Google Stadia will run on as many platforms as possible, from the Chromecast, to Android, to PCs, where games will be streamed using Google's low latency technology.

When watching games on YouTube, you'll be able to click a single "play now" button to instantly try any supported game in your browser, without downloading, without updating, or without any interruptions.

The goal is to lower the barrier to entry, so that gaming is more accessible.

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Google will also be making their own controller which will connect through wifi to the host game session in order to reduce input lag. There will be a share button and a Google Assistant feature.

Right now, Stadia supports 1080/60, but at launch, it will support 4K, and even 8K.

Unreal, Havok, and Unity engines will support the hardware, which will run off Linux. Each game will run off of Google's data centers.

ID Software has gotten their upcoming DOOM Eternal working on the Google Stadia, and will be bringing it to the platform.

Google will also have its own first party development studio, Stadia Entertainment, which will create games for the platform.

 

[ertaboy356b]

Play games for free, or play games with ads lol

 

[Zumoly]

Too good to be true?
It'd be amazing if they can pull it off though!
When do we get to try Stadia?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I sure hope it doesn't get any big, important exclusive releases. That would suck for those that are too far away from Google's servers to get playable input latency or just don't have fast enough internet.
Other than that, I'm all for more competition in the streaming service market, it should help drive prices down. And these streaming services can be a godsend for those who can't afford a beefy gaming PC to run their games at high settings.

and since games will be streamed Google also resolved all the potential hacking/pirate issues!
smart move google very well played ;p

google 1- 0 stingy pirates hahahahaaaaaaaa

They can't stop people sharing their account with all the games on it though.

 

[DanOl98]

In theory, this is really good. The only thing I fear is that people who don't have a good enough internet connection (which is very common, at least here in Italy) won't be able to use it (or at least use it decently)

 

[Taleweaver]

I'm...pretty much indifferent to this. To be more precise: I'm interested in the technological possibilities, but am probably not a potential customer myself.


You see...what thus far most of the nay-sayers seem to forget is that the failed game streaming services of the past shouldn't be an indication. Reason? 5G. 5G is a helluvalot faster than 4G, and has low latency as part of the package. So in other words: the project might just be feasible technology-wise.

What might not be in the video but which I read elsewhere, is that the console will be in horsepower about up to par with xbone/PS4. There is no way around this: this is extremely odd. As anyone who works with citrix can attest: the horsepower of your PC/laptop/tablet doesn't mean much, as all it does it record input, display output and makes sure both of these are sent/received from the main computer who does all the calculating*. So despite the speed and possibilities 5G offers, it seems like google is spreading their chances and just makes a regular console as well.


*of course this doesn't mean employees won't beg for faster computers, because y'know...some end users are just wired this way.


Oh, right...and there's this:

Unreal, Havok, and Unity engines will support the hardware, which will run off Linux.

Of course it's nothing new that unreal engine runs on linux, but still...it just pisses me off that epic is at the same time holding back game development on linux on their store as encouraging it on this front.

Pick a side already, Epic!

Correction: pick the side that supports linux, Epic!

 

[KingVamp]

What might not be in the video but which I read elsewhere, is that the console will be in horsepower about up to par with xbone/PS4. There is no way around this: this is extremely odd. As anyone who works with citrix can attest: the horsepower of your PC/laptop/tablet doesn't mean much, as all it does it record input, display output and makes sure both of these are sent/received from the main computer who does all the calculating*. So despite the speed and possibilities 5G offers, it seems like google is spreading their chances and just makes a regular console as well.

I might be mistaken, since I've only seen bits and pieces, but I'm pretty sure that the main computer is the thing that is stronger than the Xbone/PS4. There is no console.

 

[Naster]

Another shit

 

[KingVamp]

Apparently, Google will be making their own exclusives...

Why obsessed with owning a game when you die unfortunately you can't take them with you

Why own anything, if you are just going to die?

 

[pohaxsf]

I run GeforceNow on terrible bandwidth. If this has compression of some kind.. I will be shocked.

 

[Something whatever]

Dead before the next year

 

[Deleted member 445482]

Dead before the next year

Simple and straight to the point, I like it.

 

[Techjunky90]

Will fail. Millions of people in America do not have access to high speed internet, not to mention all the people in other countries. Game streaming will never be more than a proof of concept. The entire internet infrastructure would need upgraded, that would cost billions of dollars.

 

[Obveron]

Raise your hand if you want network latency on your single player games!

 

[Hmed]

Welcome to stadia and new Era of gaming industries in the world

 

[Vivisector]

The only thing I can think of is how bad game streaming is for game preservation. Much worse than digital only games are. At least then you can still back up the files and wait for a way to crack their DRM once they can no longer be downloaded. Even if Google manages to pull some magic to make the experience as good as they're promising I don't think I'm going to be too eager to try it.

 

[the_randomizer]

The only thing I can think of is how bad game streaming is for game preservation. Much worse than digital only games are. At least then you can still back up the files and wait for a way to crack their DRM once they can no longer be downloaded. Even if Google manages to pull some magic to make the experience as good as they're promising I don't think I'm going to be too eager to try it.

Digital games > cloud gaming will ever be. The DRM in that is even more unnecessarily BS.

 

[weatMod]

exactly my point... they will create a huge monopoly with the big companies on board.. other developers will slowly lose interest to develop to anything else..

i see they got very good points, streaming is great in all ways but there is a big drawback.. the people that live far away from their servers or not good enough internet are just screwed up..
specially when developers start to develop only to this plataform, people will not be able to enjoy gaming like they used to... if you live in a shit area with poor ping to their servers, you can't do pretty much anything to solve that issue...
and of course the fact you no longer own anything.. they are free to revoke your access and easily keylog all your inputs and sell data to third parties
the tech companies can easily just give you potato computers while google and etc keeps rising in computational power

just another reason to boycott everything google

 

[Deleted member 445482]

just another reason to boycott everything google

Yeah let's boycott google for making an online game streaming service! That will teach them not to make a platform for those who don't have the best hardware!

 

[Ericthegreat]

I THINK it's time buy some google's stocks, might it will raise soon!

This was factored in as soon as the chrome support came out, on announcement probably I'd guess 5% increase followed by a small decrease, I haven't checked, but was I correct?

 

[weatMod]

Yeah let's boycott google for making an online game streaming service! That will teach them not to make a platform for those who don't have the best hardware!

i said ANOTHER reason
there are plenty of other reason to boycott this POS cancer monopoly
Google is a malignant tumor
we don't need them monopolizing gaming too

"those who don't have the best hardware!"
you are better off just paying for the hardware because in the long run you WILL pay for it more in other ways