The Google giant in video game streaming

On Monday, Google hosted a live event to reveal more details about Google Stadia, the company's cloud-based video game delivery platform, which is expected to launch in November in 14 countries. This shift in the video game industry is a major move for the tech giant.

Yet Google has always forced evolution in many areas. Searching the Internet was a totally different experience before autocomplete. Translation of foreign languages ​​was a complex and tedious process before Google Translate. The Chrome browser has changed the way we browse the web. And Google Fiber has prompted other Internet service providers to increase their speed offerings.

Today, society is interested in video games. And it could be one of his biggest markets so far. The video game industry has generated sales of about $ 135 billion in 2018, according to the Newzoo market research firm. And GlobalData predicts the market will reach $ 300 billion by 2025.

By continuously streaming access to games from any mobile device, Stadia will allow gamers to play AAA games with the maximum of graphics settings on virtually any screen – TV, PC, laptop, phone or tablet – without having to worry about the purchase of the latest processor, graphics card or console. Several major publishers, including Ubisoft, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive Software and Warner Bros. are already in the game.

Rather than buy a game in a retail store or download it directly to their console, players will avoid downloading titles with Stadia, broadcasting them as a Netflix movie.

"I think it's the next natural step in the 20 years of innovation that Google leads in the data center," says Phil Harrison, Google vice president and head of Stadia. "We are making multibillion dollar investments, strengthening our network, and this knowledge and understanding of fundamental ways to move bits over the Internet is one of Google's essential features. one of the very few companies with the ability to build this. "

The reactions of the players at the stadiums have been mixed so far. Some like the idea of ​​being able to instantly play games on any screen. Some fear that the gaming experience is as responsive as playing on an Xbox or PlayStation 4 console.

Some of these reasons are based on legitimate concerns about how Stadia will behave on the internet at an accelerated speed, especially since very few people have had time to use it. But this also relies to a certain extent on fidelity to existing gaming platforms. (The story of Xbox fans versus those of PlayStation is apparent to that of fans of rival university football teams.)

Harrison acknowledges this, but says it's not an insurmountable challenge.

"It's not the first time this has happened," he says. "I'm long enough to remember the time when this Japanese TV maker started playing in the video game industry to try to challenge Sega and Nintendo – and, of course, it's transformed In PlayStation, this can be done.It is done.Every generation watches the hard fights of allegiance and recalls that, with Stadia, we are not asking our players to give up $ 500 or 1. $ 000 on a new custom generation [piece of hardware]. We take care of it in the data center, and they will be able to try it at very low prices, and in some cases for free. "

Beyond its potential paradigm shift for gamers, game streaming could also change the way developers create new titles. Rather than designing them for a specific game console, they can now use the broader capabilities of a data center, which could give rise to more ambitious titles.

It could also change the way publishers sell games. While sales of individual titles will not go away anytime soon (and there will always be players who want physical copies), streaming games could make an all-in-one model like Netflix more appealing. (Ubisoft is already experimenting with this by launching Uplay + on September 3rd, giving players access to over 100 games, including new releases, for $ 14.99 per month.)

"We designed Stadia early on in our business model to support this type of publisher initiative," Harrison said.

Google has the greatest length of time in terms of streaming games, with an imminent launch for Stadia (as well as an existing web services division to handle traffic load), but this is not the case. is not the only company to explore this space. Electronic Arts unveiled a prototype of its own streaming service in 2018. And Sony offers PlayStation Now, giving PlayStation owners instant access to a library of 650 games (mostly older, catalog titles) for $ 99 per year.

This is a big change to make for the players. And Harrison knows it will not be instant. However, he says, once people have spent some time playing video games via Stadia or similar services, it will be unlikely that they will find previous models.

"The story suggests that once on the network, you do not come back," he says. "There are still vinyl records sold in the music industry, but the vast majority of music is appreciated through digital services.And clearly, as soon as you start creating games that can only be created because As part of a network of network centers, you are creating a whole new form of entertainment and games that can not be downloaded or inserted on a disk. "