The Star Late Edition

New Google video game ‘is not a box’

- MAE ANDERSON | AP

GOOGLE unveiled a video-game streaming platform called Stadia this week, positionin­g itself to take on the traditiona­l video-game business.

The platform will store a game-playing session in the cloud and lets players jump across devices operating on Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS, such as Pixel phones and Chromebook­s.

Google made the announceme­nt at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Some industry watchers were expecting a streaming console, but Google’s platform centres squarely on the company’s cloud infrastruc­ture.

“The new generation of gaming is not a box,” said Google vice president Phil Harrison. “The data centre is your platform.”

Much like movies and music, the traditiona­l video-game industry has been shifting from physical hardware and games to digital downloads and streaming. Video-game streaming typically requires a strong connection and more computing power than simply streaming video, since there is realtime interactio­n between player and game. Google says it is leveraging its data centres to power the system.

Alphabet Inc’s Google said playing video games will be as simple as pressing a “Play Now” button, with nothing to download or install. An optional dedicated Stadia controller will be available. The wi-fi-enabled controller has a button that lets players launch a microphone and use Google Assistant to ask questions about the games being played. Another button lets users share gameplay directly to Google’s video streaming service, YouTube.

CFRA Research analyst Scott Kessler said Google’s approach that ties YouTube sharing and video-game playing is unique.

“It is not necessaril­y at this point the easiest thing for people to livestream their games and now you can do it with the push of a button,” he said. “What they’ve done with Stadia is to connect and unify both the gaming platform and the streaming platform which obviously is new.”

No launch date or pricing was announced, but the company said Stadia will be available this year in the US, Canada, the UK and parts of Europe.

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