Like Netflix for online gaming? Google announces Stadia, a streaming service that lets you play via your browser
- Platform, built on top of Google Chrome, allows users to play games without having to download and install them first
- Internet giant will also launch console-style controller and found its own game development studio
Google made a big leap into interactive entertainment on Tuesday as it announced an online video gaming platform that the company says represents the future of play.
The streaming games service, called Stadia, allows users to run video games on sophisticated hardware maintained remotely by Google while directly controlling the action from their own devices over an internet connection.
Google’s approach closely mirrors that of Netflix and on-demand video, a model that has since spread to e-books, music and live television. And it differs from existing platforms such as Valve’s Steam, which require users to download and install a game before it can be played.
At an industry conference in San Francisco, Google also debuted a console-style game controller designed to communicate with the new games service, which is built on top of the Google Chrome browser and runs from Google data centers located around the world.
Both moves underscore the stakes for Google and other tech companies as they seek to stay dominant in a never-ending battle for consumers’ attention and behavioural data. Now the company is seeking to combine its advantages in software, networking and cloud computing to develop an entirely new product.