We were waiting for Google to announce their gaming project at GDC, and they did not disappoint. A gaming platform that can be played on phones, chromebooks, chromeOS tablets, and Android TVs. And to add the icing on the cake, the games can be enjoyed regardless of how powerful (or powerless) your device is, thanks to the powerful servers of Google.
This gaming platform goes by Stadia, and this may be the way in which Google can change the gaming industry. Performance on Stadia is reported to be rated at 10.7 Teraflops, versus 6.0 on Xbox One X and 4.2 on PS4. Add to that the ability to continue play regardless of device (from phone to TV to chromebook), use any compatible controller, and to stream realtime on Youtube, and Google may have the attention of gamers.
My favorite feature is Crowd Play, as this will open up the game for content creators in more ways than one. Crowd Play allows viewers of a stream to be able to jump in and play. This literally took the arcade experience and brought it to Youtube. This can be a great way to open up content creation to a whole new audience.
Take a game like Mortal Kombat (or Street Fighter), a person could have a channel where they literally compete with their viewers. And with the support for Cross platform play, creators can compete with their viewers regardless of what system they have.
Stadia is looking like one of Google’s best creations yet. There are a few things I see from keeping this from being a success. The first is if it is priced unreasonable, and the second would be if they can not secure agreements with the top gaming developers. This is one of the things that killed the Nvidia Shield TV, and this would sure keep Stadia from becoming more than a niche.
