
Google Announces Its New Gaming Platform Called Stadia
The tech company is sharing details of the gaming platform, including a new Google controller, at the Game Developers Conference.
Google announced Stadia, a new cloud-based gaming platform, at its GDC 2019 keynote Tuesday morning. It’s a major move for Google into the video game business, which is increasingly building toward streaming as a solution.
8 Key point of Google new gaming platform Stadia :
- Promising a “game platform for everyone”
- Aimed at developers, players and YouTube creators. ( It’s a converging of developers, game players and YouTube community )
- Stadia launches streaming games in less than 5 seconds.
- USB controllers will work, so will a new Stadia controller. Uses WiFi to directly connect to data center. Capture button lets you share to YouTube, Google Assistant button lets you tap into Google Assistant for in game help.
- A single Stadia instance has 10.7 teraflops of GPU processing power. This is more than than PS4 Pro and Xbox One X combined, according to Google.
- They only slipped in a quick look at the back, but Google’s #Stadia controller has the Konami code on it.
- You won’t be limited to a console or PC with #Stadia, says Phil Harrison. You can use a console, PC, tablet, smartphone or any device you image. The data center is your playground now!
- Stadia will have Crowd Play: can jump into game streams on YouTube and start…playing??
“I’m not actually a big gamer”, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai as he began his presentation.
Stadia is a unifying platform that aims to allow you to play any game on any platform, whether it’s a TV, laptop, phone or tablet. As Google’s Phil Harrison puts it: this is not a platform, the data center is your platform. The company showed off a chromecast streamer that allows you to use the platform on a TV.
Google will have a hardware component, however: the Stadia Controller. It’s a traditional looking gamepad, with dual analog joysticks, four face buttons, and shoulder buttons. The controller will connect to the cloud via wi-fi, and includes a “share” button to connect to YouTube and a Google Assistant button.
Google announces its new gaming platform Stadia #GDC2019 pic.twitter.com/VDvuBnsuQ6
— Mike Yawney (@Gadget_Guy) March 19, 2019
Stadia will be powered by Google’s worldwide data centers, which live in more than 200 countries and territories, streamed over hundreds of millions of miles of fiber optic cable, Pichai said. Executive Phil Harrison, previously at PlayStation and Xbox, now at Google, said the company will give developers access to its data centers to bring games to Stadia.
Promising a “game platform for everyone” pic.twitter.com/HgkhPIlpnp
— Scott Stein goes to GDC (@jetscott) March 19, 2019
Harrison said that players will be able to access and play Stadia games, like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, within seconds. Harrison showed a YouTube video of Odyssey featuring a “Play” button that would offer near-instant access to the game.
Phil Harrison discussing Stadia. Aimed at developers, players and YouTube creators. pic.twitter.com/CAAZ8BesSK
— Scott Stein goes to GDC (@jetscott) March 19, 2019
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the new platform at the Game Developers Conference, saying that Google want to build a gaming platform for everyone, and break down barriers to access for high-end games.
Holy hell – integrated right into YouTube. Push ‘play now’ on a video and you’re instantly in a game. No installs. pic.twitter.com/r4eqy2v177
— Owen Williams ⚡ (@ow) March 19, 2019
Google Stadia controller revealed pic.twitter.com/QAlEaScHLM
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) March 19, 2019
USB controllers will work, so will a new Stadia controller. Uses WiFi to directly connect to data center. Capture button lets you share to YouTube, Google Assistant button lets you tap into Google Assistant for in game help. #Stadia pic.twitter.com/ykQ3zvPCIo
— Eli Blumenthal (@eliblumenthal) March 19, 2019
This is the Stadia controller.
A single Stadia instance has 10.7 teraflops of GPU processing power. This is more than than PS4 Pro and Xbox One X combined, according to Google. pic.twitter.com/KHjsviKrcf
— WIRED UK (@WiredUK) March 19, 2019
They only slipped in a quick look at the back, but Google’s #Stadia controller has the Konami code on it. Neeeerrrrrrrrdddsssss! pic.twitter.com/Q8rKzicQZY
— Ellen Rose (@icklenellierose) March 19, 2019
Here’s a list of partners Google has amassed for Stadia. pic.twitter.com/ASGr2JcVPU
— Ken Yeung (@thekenyeung) March 19, 2019
Stadia may bring back couch multiplayer: split screen gaming won’t take toll on performance for each player’s view, per Google pic.twitter.com/fdMTOgaLEj
— Scott Stein goes to GDC (@jetscott) March 19, 2019
This is nuts. @Google has a machine learning Style Transfer ML tool to apply art designs to game models instantly – Van Gogh to Pac-Man (!!) #GDC2019 pic.twitter.com/ntzwODkFOE
— Scott Stein goes to GDC (@jetscott) March 19, 2019