Over the last few weeks, a lot of rumors have been around the Google GDC 2019 gaming keynote.
Over the last few weeks, a lot of rumors have been around the Google GDC 2019 gaming keynote.
At a certain point, it looked even possible that the Mountain View giant was set to reveal a brand new console, together with a streaming platform which we’ve already been able to test last year (Project Stream).
Anyway, according to Kotaku, that’s not the case — Google is ‘simply’ revealing its full plans for Project Stream and a dedicated controller.
“The rumors we’re hearing suggest that this streaming platform will be Google’s focus tomorrow and that Google wants it to be playable on any hardware: PCs, Macs, phones, TVs, and so on,” says the website.
“Buzz we’ve heard is that you’ll be able to play on a computer or Chromecast using a regular Xbox controller and that Google will also unveil its controller that has some sort of streaming capabilities.”
Most importantly, “we haven’t heard anything about any other hardware announcements,” which means a console reveal would be highly surprising.
It wouldn’t be a simple streaming platform, by the way, and would be coming with a lot of ambitious ideas.
Few examples:
- “You’re watching your favorite Twitch streamer play a game, and you think it looks cool, so you buy it, and then, if the developers of the game have toggled this feature, you can download a save file that starts you off right where your streamer was playing.”
- “Maybe it’s a multiplayer game, and you can buy the game and immediately jump into a match with the streamer if the developers allow it and the streamer is down.”
As rumored, the platform would be coming with a YouTube integration of sorts, and the recent hirings of Phil Harrison and Jade Raymond hint at the creation of a dedicated first-party infrastructure where Google could be funding its very own exclusive games.
We’ll learn more later today at 18:00 CET (which is most probably yours 10:00 AM PT).
