Google Wants In: “Platform” For Gaming, Hardware and or Streaming

The key difference with console hardware is that they typically are sold for a loss, or at best breakeven or tiny margins. The goal is to sell a crapload of them and hope to make money off software.

Google computer gadgets are money makers right off the bat. I highly doubt any of their chromebooks, speakers and such are breakeven..... but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some of these products lose money and Google hopes to make revenue back on ads.
You will be surprised they make a killer off those chromebooks now that they support Google playstore.
 
https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/19/18231469/google-games-gdc-2019-keynote-date-start-time


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
 



Spawn Wave put up a video about the Google rumors. I'll update this post with anything interesting.
  • Screenshot of the UI from a dev kit
  • (we knew this already) Two pillars: streaming and a traditional home console, codename Metallurgy
  • Exclusive games using known IPs, funded by Google
  • Designed so games developed for the console will translate easily to streaming service
  • Streaming service will launch before the hardware
  • Currently planning two consoles, one weaker ("Steel") and one stronger ("Titanium")
    • "Steel" could be dropped because of production costs
    • "Titanium" is more powerful than Xbox One X
    • Sleep mode
  • Developers supporting the Google console:
    • Ubisoft
    • SEGA (major revivals)
    • Google's own first-party
 
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/9/1...oller-project-stream-streaming-service-render


Later this month, Google is hosting a mysterious event during the Game Developers Conference that very well could revolve around its the rumored streaming service, which in past reports has been likened to a “Netflix for games” and is said to be built on the technology Google developed for its Project Streamtrial last year.

The patent itself is for a notification system for the controller that notifies a player when a game is now available, that a user has received an invitation, a status chance on a leaderboard, or a chat request from another player.


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I tried out Google's project stream with Assassin's Odyssey (got a free copy of the game too). It'll be be interesting to see what they do in the gaming space.
 
I tried out Google's project stream with Assassin's Odyssey (got a free copy of the game too). It'll be be interesting to see what they do in the gaming space.


I’m surprised they have yet to purchase any devs, yet. Amazon has already gone out and bought a few, and never have their own version of the crysis engine.
 
Even if they bring out a console with a decent CPU, it can easily be superior to X and Pro from the start. The only obstacle then is beating a 6TF of GPU. That isn't that much anymore, so they can go fairly cheap on the GPU side and beat out Sony/MS then release an even more powerful version later. Who knows, they might not even go for a powerful system though.
 
Even if they bring out a console with a decent CPU, it can easily be superior to X and Pro from the start. The only obstacle then is beating a 6TF of GPU. That isn't that much anymore, so they can go fairly cheap on the GPU side and beat out Sony/MS then release an even more powerful version later. Who knows, they might not even go for a powerful system though.


Probably just powerful enough to stream, like a roku stick
 
I’m surprised they have yet to purchase any devs, yet. Amazon has already gone out and bought a few, and never have their own version of the crysis engine.
I got a feeling their more interested in a streaming service for gaming, with their own internal studio built from the ground-up, or studios commissioned to make exclusive games.
 
I got a feeling their more interested in a streaming service for gaming, with their own internal studio built from the ground-up, or studios commissioned to make exclusive games.


Didn’t MS try that before, with the latter, have a studio who’d have other studios make games based upon/around their own or other, kinda like 343 wih MCC and to an extent their anime compilation....but I get ya.


What ever they may do we won’t hear/see from them till maybe e3, if we’re (gamers not press/industry), lucky
 
ID software, Ubisoft, Crystal Dynmanics, Amy Henning are a few also confirmed to be there.

I wouldn't be surprised if they show off the new Doom game running on it to showcase how minimal the input lag is.
 
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Didn’t MS try that before, with the latter, have a studio who’d have other studios make games based upon/around their own or other, kinda like 343 wih MCC and to an extent their anime compilation....but I get ya.


What ever they may do we won’t hear/see from them till maybe e3, if we’re (gamers not press/industry), lucky
I haven't kept up with MS' practices in a while, but many do that. Where instead of owning the studio, they commission the studio for an exclusive release, usually with the rhubarb being that they own the IP or have to wait a while before releasing on another platform. I can see Google doing that for a short while, to get some spotlight.
 
https://kotaku.com/heres-what-were-...ming-1833389082/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Here's What We're Hearing About Google's Plans For Gaming
Jason SchreierToday 7:00pm
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Google has set up a pop-up display area at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for this week’s Game Developers Conference.
Photo: Chris Kohler
Tomorrow, the tech giant Google will reveal its newest plans for entering the video game world. What we’re hearing suggests that the main focus isn’t on a console, as has been speculated, but instead a streaming platform with all sorts of bells and whistles. And a fancy new controller that you can use to play it.
Google’s investment in streaming is no secret. Last fall, the company’s Project Stream beta allowed users with high-speed internet connections to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in a Chrome tab. Rather than processing the game’s graphics locally using a high-end PC or gaming console, Project Stream ran the game on Google’s servers, allowing users to play the game by downloading data on the fly—aka streaming. It’s not a new technology, but past stabs at it have fizzled mostly because of latency issues, a problem that Google’s decision-makers think they can solve thanks to the data centers they’ve got all around the world.
The appeal, of course, is being able to play high-end games without having to dish out hundreds of dollars for gaming hardware, which Google hopes will allow it to reach hundreds of millions of people rather than the tens of millions who currently own video game consoles.
The rumors we’re hearing suggest that this streaming platform will be Google’s focus tomorrow, and that Google wants it to be playable on any hardware: PCs, Macs, phones, TVs, and so on. Buzz we’ve heard is that you’ll be able to play on a computer or Chromecast using a regular Xbox controller, and that Google will also unveil its own controller that has some sort of streaming capabilities. (We’re not sure how the controller will work, but it may allow you to use Google’s streaming platform on a television even if you don’t have any other hardware hooked up.)
We haven’t heard anything about any other hardware announcements.
It’s the platform’s bells and whistles that may be the wildest part of tomorrow’s big keynote, which takes place at the Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco at 10am Pacific Time. Google’s streaming platform won’t just allow you to play high-end games on low-end hardware. What we’ve heard from several people who have either been briefed on or heard about Google’s plans is that the platform is full of ambitious ideas.
One scenario that’s been described to us by three different people (each of whom either heard about it secondhand or directly from Google), for example, might look something like this: You’re watching your favorite Twitch streamer play a game and you think it looks cool, so you buy it, and then, if the developers of the game have toggled this feature, you can download a save file that starts you off right where your streamer was playing. Or maybe it’s a multiplayer game, and you can buy the game and immediately jump into a match with the streamer, if the developers allow it and the streamer is down.
Sounds wild, right? We’ll have to wait and see if this pans out, but it’s what game developers are buzzing about as the reveal of Google’s platform draws closer. The main selling point is the removal of traditional barriers like discs and loading screens, which may be a large part of Google’s pitch tomorrow.
Another of these bells and/or whistles is YouTube integration, as we reported last year. We’ve heard a variety of possibilities surrounding that, including ads that allow you to buy games directly, and, far more interesting, a feature that can tell where you are in a game and automatically load up the correct spot in a YouTube walkthrough if you want help.
We also know that Google has been funding its own video games, and that the company has been poaching developers and executives from all over the video game world. Phil Harrison, formerly of PlayStation and Xbox, is running the Google Yeti unit, and last week longtime game producer Jade Raymond announced that she was joining the company. We’ve also heard that Google has spent the past couple of years meeting with big publishers and developers across the world, and it’s safe to expect some of those to show up tomorrow.
What we don’t know is exactly which games we’ll see at Google’s keynote, what else might be unveiled there, and what other features the streaming platform may have. We’ll get the full picture at 10am PT tomorrow.
 
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So... supposedly the effective power will be over 10TF. I still don't know. Wouldn't that be dictated by how many people are playing at a given time?

So none of the background footage they've shown looks that great. I'm waaaay on the fence here. Lots of neat Ideas, but how long before they come to fruition, and how will it go in real world conditions?

The keynote had a conspicuous lack of actual games...


Highlights for me-

Everything is cloud connected

can be used on any chrome capable device

can use own controllers/peripherals

10.7 (I think that was it) TF AMD GPUs

possible multiple GPU utilization

No-sacrifice splitscreen

Google controller connects directly to network (eliminating the Latency inflicted by the display)

4k 60fps


Potential Negatives-

games completely dependent on internet connection

Unproven in real-world and under load

Unknown what level of control you have for game settings

No games shown, and no first party titles announced
 
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