Google Set To Announce Game Streaming Service

Google is getting ready to announce its own game streaming service.

The tech giant will show off its plans to enter the $100+ billion gaming industry during the Game Developers Conference presentation on Tuesday (March 19) in San Francisco. It is expected that the presentation will include a commercial version of its “Project Stream” service, as well as a look at its “Yeti” gaming console.

Google’s streaming service would allow users to stream games directly to devices they already own instead of having to spend money on an expensive gaming system and physical game discs.

“Cloud gaming will enable publishers to broaden their reach even further by potentially taping into new audiences on any device and any screen,” Forrester vice president and principal analyst Thomas Husson told CNBC. “Beyond music or video, gaming represents another opportunity to offer recurring streaming revenues for companies in the gaming ecosystem. For cloud platforms like Amazon, Google or Microsoft, it will also become an opportunity to offer cloud storage and services to game publishers, who spend more and more in their IT infrastructure. ”

Google has already shown how the service can work with Project Stream, which allowed people to stream “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ” with a Chrome web browser running on a cheap computer. Google showed it was also possible to accomplish the hard rendering in the cloud instead of using a pricey machine.

Still, some experts say that it won’t be easy for Google to take on top gaming dogs such as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. In fact, several companies have already failed to launch similar game streaming services on a large scale. Google will also be dealing with competition from Microsoft and Amazon, who are reportedly working on similar streaming services.

“I believe Google will have a tremendously hard time pulling off a successful paid game streaming service,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “It has middling success with paid music, movies and books, so my expectations are low.”

But Husson said the company does have a good foundation for the service in its favor.

“It is no surprise to see Google invest in the space,” Husson said. “The fact they recently announced the recruitment of Jade Raymond, [formerly of] Ubisoft and EA, is a clear sign they want attract gaming publishers. They already have a massive developer ecosystem thanks to the success of games on the Android platform. Now is the time to signal to the market they too are serious are about cloud gaming.”