- Google announced Stadia, their new video game platform, during their keynote address at GDC 2019 in San Francisco.
- Stadia will launch later this year; a full list of games hasn't been provided but a handful were shown off during Google's keynote address on Tuesday.
- Stadia makes use of streaming technology to make high quality video games playable on a variety of devices, including computers, smartphones, and the Chrome Cast.
- Games on Stadia will have special YouTube integration and unique multiplayer features like State Share and Crowd Play.
Earlier today Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Stadia, Google's new video game platform. Rather than creating a new console, every game on Stadia will be streamed to players from Google's cloud data centers. That means Stadia will make high quality video games available on any device with the Google Chrome browser, including computers, smartphones, and the ChromeCast.
Google claims that games on Stadia will be able to surpass the graphical quality of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, reaching up to 60 frames per second at 4K resolution when it launches later this year. Google partnered with chipmaker AMD to develop new technology for Stadia's gaming hardware.
Google first tested their video game streaming service in October 2018 with a closed beta service called ProjectStream. The beta test let users play "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey," a $60 game released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, from Google's Chrome browser.
Developed by Ubisoft, "Assassin's Creed" is the sort of blockbuster game that would traditionally require a dedicated video game console or gaming computer to play. ProjectStream significantly reduced that barrier to entry; it only required a 25 mbps or faster internet connection and the Chrome browser, controllers were optional. The streaming platform offered the same high quality graphics and gameplay experience as the console versions of the game.
Stadia is due for release in 2019 but only a handful of games were showcased during Google's GDC keynote address. The platform already has the support of popular video game development software like Unreal and Unity, which will make it easier to create games for Google's platform moving forward.
These are the game's we've seen so far:
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