Gaming news outlet Kotaku has made a bold claim regarding the console gaming market. They state that they've heard from reputable sources that Google plans to get into the gaming industry. Though details are a bit fuzzy, Kotaku maintains that Google will be using a streaming platform as its focus, and there will be a specific hardware that'll be sold. They also plan to acquire some game developers in order to create games for the platform.

Buying out game developers isn't an uncommon occurrence--another large company, Microsoft, took 5 companies under its wings shortly before E3 without much of a deal, and Google itself is no stranger to buy-outs. It's definitely feasible. According to journalists in the industry, Google also had a large presence at this year's Game Developer's Conference, meeting with companies in order to discuss the potential for a streaming-based video game service, codenamed Yeti at the time.

In terms of streaming for video games, there's two major services out there that gamers might know of: GeForce Now and PlayStation Now. Both of these let players utilize any sort of supported hardware to play games. It also lets players experience titles that might not run normally on their computers, or running them without storing the download on a hard drive, and removing the need to buy discs or carts.

That, of course, brings in the long-fought debate of digital over physical, and the industry's recent push towards a potential all-digital future. Plus, Google is known for starting projects and then leaving them to rot on a whim. If any company could manage to pull off such a feat, it would be Google who could possibly make it work.

What are your thoughts? Would you want a digital-only streaming alternative to play your games on, or do you prefer having your own hardware and physical games? Do you think the infrastructure is there to support it? Will Google follow through?

Source

 

[Deleted User]

pay google to stream games.
pay google to give you fast enough internet connection for said purpose.
... they really want to enter this scene, dont they...

 

[pedro702]

streaming only games for perpetuity? hell no lol.

doesn't matter if they have AAA games, streaming only just kills every chance of succeeding since a bad internet means you cant play it at all, also renting all those streaming games will be a nightmare because in 1 or 2 years they close the streaming and your money is gone lol.

This will be a bigger flop than steam boxes.

 

[Noctosphere]

yay, A new console competitor
I hope it will be worth buying, having tons of recurrent exclusive characters/world like Ninty
Otherwise, I wont buy

 

[Chary]

They're clearly trying to capitalize on the total success of the Ouya.

 

[RattletraPM]

No thanks, I'll hold on to my own hardware.

 

[Bladexdsl]

google box here we come

 

[pedro702]

yay, A new console competitor
I hope it will be worth buying, having tons of recurrent exclusive characters/world like Ninty
Otherwise, I wont buy

guess you didnt read it lol, a new streaming only console competitor, does that even classify as a console? since it only streams everything?

i think a streaming device is not a console since it wont actually play any games lol.

 

[Bladexdsl]

I hope it will be worth buying,

don't count on it it's a streaming box

 

[Noctosphere]

guess you didnt read it lol, a new streaming only console competitor, does that even classify as a console? since it only streams everything?

i think a streaming device is not a console since it wont actually play any games lol.

haha, yea, didnt read^^

 

[linuxares]

They're clearly trying to capitalize on the total success of the Ouya.

Ouya 2.0, bigger, bolder, and uncut!

 

[DinohScene]

Angry birds in 4K.

The only real games google has are ports of existing games ;')

 

[shaunj66]

I'm willing to bet it's nothing more than a "gaming" focused Android TV box similar to the Nvidia shield TV. I doubt they're planning to compete directly against the big 3.

So I wouldn't expect any "triple a" titles on any such thing. Android gaming as it is can be pretty underwhelming to anyone other than the causal market. And if it's streaming only then that's even worse. At least Nvidia made some attempts to port over titles to native code on the shield TV.

 

[hippy dave]

No thanks, I'll hold on to my own hardware.

You'll go blind.

 

[RedoLane]

Coming soon: Google Box Three!

 

[RattletraPM]

You'll go blind.

...

Spoiler

...

Spoiler

nice one.

 

[osaka35]

Streaming only seems extremely dangerous for the future of the preservation of games. Digital-only, especially if not on PC, faces similar problems with having any kind of permanence for the games sold. Have to have access to our shared history a decade or ten from now, or what's the point.

Other than that major concern, as long as it plays well and people can play it, I guess.

 

[DinohScene]

Streaming only seems extremely dangerous for the future of the preservation of games. Digital-only, especially if not on PC, faces similar problems with having any kind of permanence for the games sold. Have to have access to our shared history a decade or ten from now, or what's the point.

Other than that major concern, as long as it plays well and people can play it, I guess.

I doubt they care about digital preservation.
An all digital future is inevitable but the streaming part indeed scares me a bit.

 

[netovsk]

So Google, Microsoft and even Netflix to a certain extent are trying to make something like PS Now, already on the market and deemed a failure by many, and compete with that.


About the streaming part I believe they intend working on some sort of hybrid tech, where the critical, input lag sensitivr part of the game is stored locally and other stuff is streamed. If this allows me to stream games from my phone instead of buying another $400 walled garden box, why not?

 

[Deleted User]

No thanks. I remember the Ouya.

I never forget the Ouya.