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[Voost Kain]

Google will reveal details about its unannounced gaming project at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month, according to an invitation sent by the tech giant Tuesday. The company will hold a keynote presentation on March 19, at 10 a.m. PT, where it’s expected to reveal details about a new endeavor focused on video games.
Official details are scant. Google’s invite only included the tagline “Gather around” and an image of what appeared to be a darkened hallway leading toward a lighted exit.

Google is reported to be working on a “a subscription-based game streaming service that could work either on Google’s Chromecast or possibly a Google-made console,” according to a report from The Information. That project is reportedly codenamed “Yeti.” A follow-up report from Kotaku indicated that Google was pursuing a streaming service paired with hardware, and an “aggressive” effort to acquire or attract game developers to Google’s platform.

In October 2018, Google unveiled Project Stream, technology that enabled high-quality streaming of games through the company’s Chrome browser. Google partnered with publisher Ubisoft to make Assassin’s Creed Odyssey playable over the internet. We called Project Stream’s performance “surprisingly great” during our hands-on testing with the beta.
GDC 2019 will run from March 18-22.

It's an interesting idea, but I think you need to build a gaming ecosystem like Xbox and PS first, otherwise all you're doing with this Yeti console/streambox is offering the same games in a games on demand interface. I'm sure they'll try to get some exclusives but we already have the two main console makers also aiming for streaming, and you have Steam and the epic store now. I don't see anyway that Google can actually break in.

Not to mention in googles case it would be streaming "only" or at least that's what I gathered based on other articles talking about that project, so that's not going to be as popular as they think it'll be. Unless there's an option to download games to the "console" for offline play (which would still require good internet).

We'll see how they present this idea at GDC, maybe they have a more ambitious plan then we think.

 

[iconmaster]

Streaming only?

 

[Xenon]

Not really down with streaming. This is like all the fears of digital only turned up to 11.

edit: gif saved!

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

With Google+ inside?!? i can wait.

 

[ViolentP]

I'm on board. Console wars were getting boring.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Conceptually I’m not against streaming. In practice, it has clear drawbacks that have to be remedied before I adopt it in any form.

But at least we have news of something. And to be frank, MS and Sony shouldn’t wait around to start talking about their plans for the future and allow the mindshare to chew the cud of Google.

 

[Fbh]

I'm curious to see what it will be.
I'm expecting a bigger glorified chromecast with all the usual chromecast sutff but also native support for the google streaming service and some google controller

 

[Tarin02543]

We all know next gen consoles will be mid range mini pc's.

Perhaps this might make things interesting.

 

[RedVIper]

Please no, I don't want google to own everything for gods sake.

 

[AV]

I give it two years.

https://killedbygoogle.com/index.html

 

[JLB]

I give it two years.

https://killedbygoogle.com/index.html

Two years sounds like a lot for me, and Google standards.

 

[Ownage]

This, too, shall pass.

 

[Vawn]

I'm the type of gamer who HAS to finish every game I start before moving on to the next thing. I don't dabble in a bunch of different stuff and it has nothing to do with financial reasons, it's just how I've always played games.

If for some reason I do drop a game, if I come back to it later, I always restart the entire thing.

All this recent news of streaming games, subscription services, etc does nothing for me. I'd much rather carefully choose a game to purchase at full price, as I will be spending a lot of time with it.

The less likely I am to pay full price for a game, the less incentive developers have to put out a high quality game. I believe we are already seeing this effect with the current subscription services. Players and developers are both treating games as if they are worth $2 instead of $60.

 

[TeamGhobad]

people dont want their games streamed.

 

[Gamezone]

As long as these companies keep announcing streaming only projects I couldn't care less.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

 

[Quezacolt]

As long as these companies keep announcing streaming only projects I couldn't care less.

I agree with you. No idea how any gamer would want something like this. I'd rather pay more and know i own something, than basically rent a game, wich publishers can take away anytime they want.

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Streaming only? Nah man... nah...

I live in the birthplace of industry, sunny telford, Shropshire, uk.

And I have 50mb Internet, even though I love a stones throw from the Center. Streaming is NOT going to work for me.

 

[jshackles]

Google is in an interesting position in the games marketplace to actually do alright with something like this assuming they put some real effort into it. They have the Play Store ecosystem which (despite what all us gaming enthusiasts think) is already a pretty big market. If someone like nVidia can make a device like the several-year-old-now Shield be a viable gaming platform for casual gamers, I imagine Google can do it better.

They have the interface (Android TV), the apps (lots of games, TV, movie apps), and the streaming technology that could let them push the boundaries even farther, such as a new Play Store "app" for each game. Make their streaming game push cross-hardware compatible, since really that's the whole point, and I see this as something I would definitely be interested in. Buy a game once through a known, trusted company like Google - play it anywhere you have a Google device (you set top TV box, your PC using Chrome, your smart phone, etc). Hell, I've got Android games I bought in 2009 that still work fine with my Android phone running 9.0 so it's plausible.

The "Streaming only" part of this rumor seems to be the sticking point for a lot of people though. I'd much prefer to have something like the Shield that has a small amount of local storage (16GB) that I can load up stuff like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Tomb Raider, etc on from the Play Store.

 

[ROMhack]

I love Google.

They are excellent.

All hail Google.

 

[Gamezone]

I agree with you. No idea how any gamer would want something like this. I'd rather pay more and know i own something, than basically rent a game, wich publishers can take away anytime they want.

Yes, ownership is completely revoked, that's one thing. Another thing is lag and games that will disconnect if something happens with your internet.

 

[Quezacolt]

Yes, ownership is completely revoked, that's one thing. Another thing is lag and games that will disconnect if something happens with your internet.

Even if i were to accept streaming only (would have to be crazy for that) i wouldn't even be able to play. where i live i can only have 4G net, with very bad connection, and most of the time, that connection can be around 1mbps, or even less.

 

[wipeout364]

Google is a company I would not support for gaming, they are an information first company and you can never be sure how committed they are to anything except gathering more data on you.

I might be paranoid but I think they are one of the most dangerous companies out there, I use their products and services but try to balance it with other services whenever possible.

 

[DeepEnigma]

They have Chromecast, so they'll probably just call this one Gamecast.

 

[Gamezone]

Even if i were to accept streaming only (would have to be crazy for that) i wouldn't even be able to play. where i live i can only have 4G net, with very bad connection, and most of the time, that connection can be around 1mbps, or even less.

Gaming on 4G is terrible, even in Norway where 4G speed isn't an issue. I get almost 150 mbps on my 4G, but there's too much jitter.

 

[FloatingIslands]

"We present to you.... The Google Simon!!!"

 

[VAL0R]

MS better triple down on new studios/IP to compete with Google and Apple. A major move like buying-EA-tier that would give them a bunch of great studios and a rich fountain of IP would be a very strong play.

Edit:

EA's total assets a mere 8.5 billion. Do it Uncle Phil.

 

[Voost Kain]

They have Chromecast, so they'll probably just call this one Gamecast.

Name already trade marked by Adult porn group boardgame.

 

[Imtjnotu]

I hope this shit fails so this whole steaming crap comes to an end

 

[cryptoadam]

I give it two years.

https://killedbygoogle.com/index.html

Still rocking my Google Nexus player, best set top box out there even if its half a decade old.

 

[cryptoadam]

A console would be a mistake. They don't have the leverage, cache and 1st party to compete with the big 3.

Maybe people want to bash streaming, but the switch has shown me that gamers are willing to cut corners and make sacrifices for convenience. The feedback I saw for AC through Chrome was all pretty much positive.

Better to offer this service and grow it so in 5 years when the tech is there they can be ahead of the curve. If Netflix gave up because it would be impossible to stream 720/1080/4K where would we be now with streaming services.

Game streaming will find its audience, its a question of when not if. It won't be the only way to game, but as tech moves forward gamers that are happy with good enough will take the convinence that it offers. Just like people would stare at you strangely for talking about installing Kings Quest in DOS with 5 floppys, people will probably look back at how we bought our games on DISCS and loaded them into are systems as quaint and ancient.

 

[Jigsaah]

I don't think they are gonna do a console. I think they will showcase the Google Stream and give us some idea of availability and potentially exclusivity. I don't think it'll release until 2020 and at a non traditional time of the year. I'm thinking August 2020. I believe it will work on a subscription service and streamed straight to your monitor with a large majority of the computing being done on their servers.

Either that or we'll have a 3 way console war again. Nintendo doesn't count. But it could be 2 and 2...could google jump on the handheld train? Guess we'll find out next month.

 

[GoldenEye98]

I mean it will probably just be an app available on various platforms. I don’t see much hardware being released.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

I give it two years.

https://killedbygoogle.com/index.html

Seriously. I don't know why anyone would invest in a Google service like this. They end so many of their products for no apparent reason. I love INBOX and they're going to be taking that away next month. I don't have much faith in this lasting long.

 

[Malio]

I can't wait for this new hotness to steal my infoz and sell it to the highest bidder!

 

[GlassAwful]

I attempted to give project stream trial a go and it wouldnt even let me try due to inconsistent download/upload speeds.

I have 100 mbit internet.. Good luck google.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Theorically, with some low latency codecs and not too high resolution.... maybe limited to 30fps to hide latency (don't try some pre-hd games on this) it could work well enough... if you don't care for compression artefacts and a monthly subscription bill.. however, if you have a console and play online you are already paying a recurring fee to play on-line, so my guess is that these gamers will be the first ones pulled in. Imagine a fortnite machine that costs the same as a controller costs on other offerings, and let you play online for about the same as ps4/xbo, I see some kids going for it, not that I find it's a good idea, or that it's compelling, I'm trying to figure out how it COULD work and find its market.

Obviously, it will work only where internet really works well, if you have a good router, hopefully they let you plug this on ethernet...

 

[scalman]

They might. Who not. Competition is good. It might be cloud based too

 

[Meh3D]

The announcement said nothing about this being a "video game" project. I dislike when they (publications) don't report what happened first and then state their assumptions. I believe at this point, we know they're presenting something at GDC and invited people people from the media only. Game related? Most likely.

I'm going to be at GDC. Going to see if I can get into this thing.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

These Google gaming stuff has bee rumoured since the 360/PS3 days. Smoking gun that is probably true. Just like people were talking about Apple iPhone and watches probably 5 years before launch..... and it happened. Who would have thought Apple would make phones and watches? But they did.

If Google does it, it's a streaming system, or a dedicated $100 game streaming box.

There is no way Google is going to release $400-500 pieces of hardware at breakeven pricing. It would sink Google's overall margins. It's not like Sony, MS and Nintendo (even when firing on all cylinders) are making absurd profit margins in gaming ever. So I don't see Google attempting it..................

................. although MS is a software focused company like Google and they did it! And still doing it not giving a shit the profits from Xbox are probably annual losses half the time. Console, controllers and all. So anything's possible I guess.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I give it two years.

https://killedbygoogle.com/index.html

Wow. Didn't know Google had so many services that kicked the bucket. Only a handful (like Google Portfolios and a few more I heard of).

That's the pro and cons of digital. You can shotgun a million totally different ideas and hope one of them sticks. In traditional companies where it involves machines making stuff, warehouses, R&D staff etc..... you got to be focused on certain things (or at least things that are kind of similar). Even the biggest conglomerate in the world wouldn't have a random smorgasbord of products like that KilledbyGoogle link.

 

[Rayderism]

Streaming eh? Yeah, no thanks.

 

[Arkage]

So much money being wasted on streaming shit from so many companies. How in the world do they have such expectations considering the generally shit internet infrastructure of the US. This is not SK.

 

[sono]

My chromecast can just about stream tv. Cant see it would be viable for gaming apart from the cut scenes.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

I can't wait for this new hotness to steal my infoz and sell it to the highest bidder!

YoU'vE GoT NOthiNG tO HidE, rIGHt? HOoMAN?

 

[The Scrivener]

Phone games on my TV. Maybe with some nice ads and pop ups in the corners. Topped off with some quality phone gameplay.

They should name it the Google Jank. The "Janky-G".

The sales pitch could be "Shit Phone Games On Your TV! Throw Away Your Nintendo!" Oh wait, it is!

The best of the best phone game isn't even as good as, oh I dunno... Crackdown 3.

Just googled "janky video game" and found this lol http://www.dorkly.com/post/79991/software-atrocities-you-can-only-find-in-mobile-app-stores

If you buy a Google console, these are the exclusives you can expect.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[baphomet]

If it's an actual non-streaming console I'm down.

Streaming only? Complete pass

 

[Virex]

If you guys think what Epic is doing with their store is bad. You'll see what google will be doing is even worse.

 

[DESTROYA]

Did you say google?......hard pass.