Earlier this year there were rumors about a certain project codenamed Yeti by Google that aimed to be a video game streaming service. It seems like there were actually some truth behind those rumors as today Google announced Project Stream.

While still a test, the service does not seem to be restricted to video game streaming as the project is advertised as "a test of Google’s streaming technologies in the US". However to kickstart things, Google has opted for streaming a video game and has partnered with Ubisoft to test the streaming capabilities of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

"We’re inspired by the game creators who spend years crafting these amazing worlds, adventures and experiences, and we’re building technology that we hope will support and empower that creativity," says Product Manager Catherine Hsiao.

A video boasting a 1080p, 60 fps stream of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey from Project Stream has even been released to show off what the platform is capable of.

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Should you be interested, Google is currently looking for people to test its new platform and further makes note that "Project Stream is geared toward home internet connections capable of 25 megabits per second, and you must be 17 years or older and live in the U.S. to participate".

What do you think of Google's venture into the gaming world? Do you think that the future of gaming lies in streaming? Share your thoughts below!

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[AbyssalMonkey]

No, I like to have my games on my hard drives so publishers can't dictate to me when or where I can play my games. Games should be goods, not services.

 

[kumikochan]

1080P is not that great seeing i mostly game in 4k on pc but atleast they do a better job at it than PSNOW wich only streams in 720p max and sometimes doesn't even hit

 

[MarkDarkness]

Nice for those living in developed areas of developed countries.

If the industry ends up pushing hard for this, and they might, the end result will be games walled off behind servers with no real preservability (other than Google's "trust us we are indexing the world" approach) that will privilege a small fraction of gamers. Worse, the enormous demand for bandwidth will stoke the telecom industry much further and we'll be driven into Net Neutrality 2.0... sigh.

All of this when piracy is at an all-time low because some companies like Steam and GOG have fairer pricing structures and sales, allowing more people to game legally.

 

[d4mation]

This will be cool for a year or two, before Google cancels the project. Or builds a competing service and pushes that one instead and leaves this to rot before cancelling it much later.

 

[Reploid]

1080P is not that great seeing i mostly game in 4k on pc but atleast they do a better job at it than PSNOW wich only streams in 720p max and sometimes doesn't even hit

newest info says only couple procents of steam users actually play in 4k. It's really taxing on hardware, but I like play older titles with superb resolution

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Meh. Quite frankly I think this will go the way all other PC game streaming services have: Absolutely nowhere. Especially so considering the US's internet infrastructure is still fucking retarded.

 

[Foxi4]

That's a hard pass for me, not only because I don't support the game streaming model in general, but also because it's a Google product. No thanks, Google - you already have my search history, the contents of my mailbox and my download history, you don't need to know my gaming habits as well. Google is hard to avoid with Android being the only reasonable alternative to iOS and YouTube being the de facto video streaming site for most content - I can't help the latter and I do my best to diminish the latter with a wall of adblocking software. If I can bypass the Google machine, I try to.

 

[kumikochan]

newest info says only couple procents of steam users actually play in 4k. It's really taxing on hardware, but I like play older titles with superb resolution

yeah a small minority do but i always play with the latest TI card and instead of upgrading this time to a 2080Ti i bought myself another Ti. I know most people don't upgrade that often but yeah i can be a graphics fps whore

 

[Justinde75]

Lmao I am very happy if my internet is faster than 2 mbps. The Internet in Germany is awful and super expensive. Dont see a use for this at all.

 

[kumikochan]

Lmao I am very happy if my internet is faster than 2 mbps. The Internet in Germany is awful and super expensive. Dont see a use for this at all.

Really ? You would think a neighbouring country would have the same internet speed. Belgium Telenet, Orange, Proximus fiberwirem dommel and some others all have a minimum of 100mbps

 

[Perfect One]

No and no.

Simple as that.

 

[Justinde75]

Really ? You would think a neighbouring country would have the same internet speed. Belgium Telenet, Orange, Proximus fiberwirem dommel and some others all have a minimum of 100mbps

I pay around 25 euro for a 3-4 mbps connection. I dont know if its better around the bigger areas, but its horribe and expensive here. Also I have to pay 15 euro monthly to not get a 250 gig limit, which is extremly low. We are 5 people in out house and we all use internet services. There was a time where we only had 200 kbps connections for months. It was absolutely dreadful.

Its not like I have interest in those streaming things anyways. The maket is way too oversatured right now.

 

[kumikochan]

I pay around 25 euro for a 3-4 mbps connection. I dont know if its better around the bigger areas, but its horribe and expensive here.

Well i pay 94 euro and get digital tv, 10Gigs 4g and can call free of charge over the whole of europe with my smartphone and text freely plus get unlimited internet around 100mbps. Also they're expanding it now to 5g

 

[JellyPerson]

I pay around 25 euro for a 3-4 mbps connection. I dont know if its better around the bigger areas, but its horribe and expensive here.

Wow, that's harsh. I live in America and can get 50mbps for $25 USD

 

[Justinde75]

The problem is just that Germany has alot of old internet lines. Most of them are easily 10 years old. So something like this is absolutely useless to me and would be more useful as a doorstopper. Who would like to stream games so they have worse quality, input lag and they dont even own the games?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

But then why does youtube gaming exist if (Google the owner of youtube) they will just do this? How is this much different?

Unless we can stream those games twitch ban like Yandere simulator or what not, it may seem hard to convince anyone of using it if they already have something established. (Maybe is for newcomers)

 

[grey72]

This is cool and all, but project stream? There's generic and then there's something like project frickin stream

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

But then why does youtube gaming exist if (Google the owner of youtube) they will just do this? How is this much different?

Unless we can stream those games twitch ban like Yandere simulator or what not, it may seem hard to convince anyone of using it if they already have something established. (Maybe is for newcomers)

It's not a live streaming service, it's a game streaming service. Google streams a game to your PC over the internet for you to play. Like PS Now or GeForce Now

 

[Bedel]

Like it or not, this is where the industry is going.
Let's see what happends, and if Google can get the best of it. I wish some luck for them.