It had been rumored since the beginning of the year that Google was working on a platform related to video games streaming, and the company finally announced Project Stream. Although it’s not yet released as a final product, this service will allow AAA games to be played in the same way as PlayStation Now or GeForce Now, only through Google Chrome. The first game available would be Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which can be played from any desktop operating system, be it Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Chrome OS.
The Google Project Stream beta is open to a limited number of participants, who will be able to play the Ubisoft game for free starting from October 5th. The minimum recommended connection to use the service is 25 Mbps, in addition to having both Google and Ubisoft accounts. It is also necessary to be over 17 years old and live in the United States.
With the advancement of fiber optic Internet connections, it makes sense to have more and more stream-based services. Rendering the game content on a remote computer is cheaper and more convenient for many users than having to buy a computer or the physical copy of a game. Thus, you will always have the best graphics quality, and you will be able to play on any system, regardless of its performance.
The Google Project Stream would run games in 1080p resolution and at 60 FPS
However, the only drawback of Google Project Stream is the latency. First, the input from the keyboard or controller must reach the server, render the image, compress it, and send it back, which makes it unsuitable for more demanding gaming. Accordingly, casual games would run smoothly.
One of the essential features of the Project Stream is the number of titles that are available, as during E3 2018 Google supposedly contacted multiple developers to include some of their games on the platform.
This year Google hired Phil Harrison, who has worked for both Sony and Microsoft in the segments of PlayStation and Xbox, but the company did not specify the division in which he is going to work. Today, we already know that he has something to do with this new Google Project Stream.
Project Stream could also reach TVs through an app or Chromecast, the only issue being that the current Chromecast version doesn’t have Bluetooth, but the upcoming Chromecast 3 will do, allowing it to be paired with peripherals.
