Google is reportedly working on a gaming platform to compete with Xbox and PlayStation
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Rumors of Google’s leap into the field of gaming with Xbox and PlayStation have been swirling for months now, but a new report gives us our best glimpse yet into what the tech giant is creating.
Kotaku reports that five separate sources, who were either briefed on Google’s plans or heard it secondhand, can attest that the company is working on a game streaming platform as well as a console. Back in February, The Information also reported similarly, stating the project was codenamed Yeti. Not a lot of details were revealed at the time, likely because no official announcement has been made, but Kotaku was able to glean some more information from its sources.
During this year’s Game Developers Conference, Google representatives met with several well known game companies in order to hear their thoughts on the matter. Not only does Google want to impress outside companies, it also wants to foster internal gaming development. A few weeks ago at E3, Google once again took meetings regarding the service’s potential.
Streaming services, especially related to video games, have been talked about for a while but haven’t quite reached their full potential due to poor internet speeds and people attempting to stream on low-end hardware. Google’s service will reportedly try to solve this by offloading the work of rendering graphics to more powerful computers at separate locations. This means you won’t need to newest and most expensive hardware to play them at their best.
Other rumors point to ideas floating around that Google may even try to integrate its future Yeti service with YouTube in some form. Instead of busting out your laptop when you’re facing a particularly hard boss, you could theoretically overlay a guide from YouTube with the simple press of a button.
There is less information going around about Google’s hardware console, but what Kotaku has heard is that it will link up to Yeti in some way. Whether or not it will have the specs to properly compete with the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 (or the upcoming Xbox family of devices and the PlayStation 5) is yet to be seen.
While it doesn’t look like the technology and internet speeds exist worldwide to bring high-quality game streaming to everyone, Google appears to be trying to make it a reality.
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