On Tuesday Google announced Stadia, a cloud-based gaming platform. The launch effectively confirmed Google’s interest in the insanely lucrative gaming market, which the internet organization has been eyeing for some time now. While it is still new, we believe the move is clever for Google as it purposes to take part in the video game niche – but will also be unique from the competition based on its focus on streaming services.
It should be noted that Stadia does not include a dedicated set-top box or gaming console; rather, it is a platform that will be accessed over an internet connection via a variety of services or products such as smartphones, web browsers, televisions, Chromebooks and browsers, you name them. This approach will ensure the product is available to a lot of people without hardware limitations.
Since games will be streamed via cloud services, a player can participate in a competition on a phone and switch to a laptop, picking up the game where he or she left off in real time. Among the hardware capabilities of Stadia include streaming games at 60 fps, with support for 4K and HDR content. Google says that the platform will be updated to support 8K games, with up to 120 fps.
The only hardware component a user requires is the Stadia Controller. It is not vastly different from what users have become accustomed to. For instance, the controller has two joysticks and an array of ordinary control buttons. It must be connected to the cloud via a Wi-Fi network and similar to other Google products, it is complemented with Google Assistant.
According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the platform will be powered by data centres strewn across the glove in more than 200 states. Developed will have access to the data centres to bring their games onboard.
Unfortunately, the launch will only be limited to North America and Europe for the time being. Bummer, right?