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Google Is Planning a Game Platform That Could Take On Xbox and PlayStation (kotaku.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Kotaku: We haven't heard many specifics about Google's video game plans, but what we have heard is that it's a three-pronged approach: 1) Some sort of streaming platform, 2) some sort of hardware, and 3) an attempt to bring game developers under the Google umbrella, whether through aggressive recruiting or even major acquisitions. That's the word from five people who have either been briefed on Google's plans or heard about them secondhand.
So what is this streaming platform, exactly? Like Nvidia's GeForce Now, the Google service would offload the work of rendering graphics to beefy computers elsewhere, allowing even the cheapest PCs to play high-end games. The biggest advantage of streaming, as opposed to physical discs or downloads, is that it removes hardware barriers for games. Whispers have been quieter about Google's hardware, whatever that may look like, but the rumors we've heard suggest that it will link up with the streaming service in some way. We're not sure whether Google is looking to compete with the technical specs of the next PlayStation and Xbox or whether this Google console will be cheaper and low-end, relying on the streaming service to pull weight. The streaming platform, which is code-named Yeti, was first reported by the website The Information earlier this year.
So what is this streaming platform, exactly? Like Nvidia's GeForce Now, the Google service would offload the work of rendering graphics to beefy computers elsewhere, allowing even the cheapest PCs to play high-end games. The biggest advantage of streaming, as opposed to physical discs or downloads, is that it removes hardware barriers for games. Whispers have been quieter about Google's hardware, whatever that may look like, but the rumors we've heard suggest that it will link up with the streaming service in some way. We're not sure whether Google is looking to compete with the technical specs of the next PlayStation and Xbox or whether this Google console will be cheaper and low-end, relying on the streaming service to pull weight. The streaming platform, which is code-named Yeti, was first reported by the website The Information earlier this year.
Google will soon be able to display ads at twice the frame rate of the competition.
To bad that google fiber is not bigger as that is what they need to make RDP gameing good.
The biggest problem with streaming will
only to find that the delay is too much for you to enjoy
always be lag. You'll press a button or take an action
the game and that your actions come out in a
different order to what you were expecting.
Don't be so pessimistic, It might actually work well in the coffee room at Googles Datacenters
The biggest advantage of streaming, as opposed to physical discs or downloads, is that it removes hardware barriers for games.
That's debatable. What's not debatable is that it adds new, probably insurmountable barriers.
The biggest "advantage" is DRM via the tightest leash imaginable, 100% to the benefit of the publisher, not the gamer. I'll quote an earlier post instead of retyping it:
https://slashdot.org/comments....
This is how I always explain streaming games to people who can't immediately see the horrible problems with them:
Imagine if the old Ubisoft always-on DRM were an inherent, unremoveable aspect of the game system rather than just something tacked on to a few individual games after the fact, such that Ubisoft couldn't even begrudgingly neuter it in a patch. Well, a streamed game is even worse than that would be.
The game doesn't even run locally. All you get is streaming video/audio and all the lag you'd expect (including controller lag), which is a recipe for disaster in North America. And any interruption in the connection that lasts more than a few tenths of a second is going to behave like the equivalent of a "freeze" or "hang" that you'd NEVER tolerate in a properly local-hosted game. Not even the most twitchy DRM existing today has that problem.
Some people consider IPS monitors unsuitable for games requiring fast reflexes (i.e. FPSes) due to their double-digit response times. Internet latency is often worse and certainly more unpredictable than LCD monitor response time, and with streamed games it applies to audio and keyboard/controller/etc input too.
Then there are the bandwidth requirements.
Let's say you're lucky enough to have a 30mb/s connection. Why would you want to use it to transfer your game's video instead of, uh, a DVI cable, which is capable of 4 Gb/s? The people who developed DVI apparently understood that that 1920 x 1200 pixels w/ 24 bits/pixels @ 60Hz results in bandwidth well over 3 Gb/s. The people who developed streamed games seem very, very confused (at best).
Those of us who know anything about bandwidth and compression and (especially) latency can see the enormous technical obstacles facing a service like this, and Onlive never did anything to explain how they intended to solve them. Instead, they did everything they could to lock out independent reviewers with NDAs and closed demonstrations. A friend of mine described it as the gaming equivalent of the perpetual motion scam, and IMO that's spot on (except that streamed games would still have the draconian DRM issues even if it worked perfectly).
Streamed games appear designed from the ground up to benefit the game publishers and fuck the customers, exactly what you'd expect from any DRM system.
P.S. Remember when Microsoft intended 24-hour XBox One check-ins, and gamers rejected that? How the fuck are mandatory check ins going to fly when measured in milliseconds?
Nowhere on earth has the latency or the bandwidth for this.
Particularly in the handheld market.
Notice that the headline says "Xbox and PlayStation", not "Nintendo". Sony isn't making games for the PlayStation Vita anymore, and Microsoft never made a handheld in the first place because it's not social enough. Let's say Google did make a handheld to replace the PlayStation Vita, perhaps an Android phone with buttons like the Xperia Play, and it operated by streaming. Which cellular ISP in Google's home country (the United States of America) would offer an affordable plan that competes with handheld use of the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch systems?
" 1) Some sort of streaming platform, 2) some sort of hardware, and 3) an attempt to bring game developers under the Google umbrella"
Well, plans don't get any more concrete than that, do they?
Hey, remember all those Google hardware initiatives that were runaway smash hits?
Me neither...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
From what I've seen of streaming (at least on the PS4 for via PS Now) is that it is totally crap. I like my games to look decent, and to actually respond quickly. I'm not on a crappy connection or anything like that, but the compression of the video, and the overall gameplay was a total turnoff for me. And I wasn't even trying to play a newish game, it was something that I was feeling nostalgic for from the PS3.
Perhaps someone else is doing it better, but there are still a bunch of hurdles in my mind to overcome to make it work well.
For now, I'll pass.
Thanks.
Google has that pretty well covered. https://cloud.google.com/about...
If we have learned anything from UBIsoft and Electronic Rats and their success with choke-chained games then that gamers just LOVE having to have their system permanently connected to a server that is more or less, kinda-sorta, maybe sometimes reachable.
Yeah. That's gonna fly.
Google? Ya know, beating the dead horse more is not gonna make it run faster.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Some types are endless suckers for micro-transactions for virtual bling. The target market will be virtual dress-me-ups.
No need for fast hardware, but quality pictures and sound will help a plenty.
And then comes the cuddly infomercials with a buy-now button.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Easier said than done. Valve is privately held and as far as I know GabeN is more than happy with the amount of $$$ in his possession.