Google is gearing up to reveal its new ambitions in gaming and today they released a new teaser to shine some light on the upcoming event, quite literally.
A new report by Android Police says Google is working on bringing Steam to Chromebooks.
There is nothing wrong with that. Gamers should be able to play on as many devices as possible, and even the smallest devices are getting good at playing complex games through streaming.
Steam is going to have to change otherwise it will become irrelevant in a few years. Vendors that don't allow me to play on many devices is going to be a major "must have" for me going forward.
Google Stadia, PSNow, and XB Console/xCloud Streaming will all allow that and I will favor platforms that give me the ability to reduce my costs and increase the amount of places where I can just pickup and play.
This isn't about streaming. Google wants a Steam client on Chromebook for playing games locally. That's fine, but they are going to have to come through with more capable laptops as they article suggests they will. The current offering is just pathetic unless you just want to browse the web and read email.
As a person who is "out and about" a lot I like to have streaming for when I am not at my home. I travel a lot in hotels, my country property, and in the city. Streaming to me is just an add-on to my gaming experience and allows me to play in more places without lugging my "portable" console setup.
I am also looking this next gen to save some money by not buying some consoles and reducing the ones I do buy.
the key here is cloud gaming for steam. The core being on pc but a scondary option to play in the cloud. Geforce now is not great because its so complicated because its third party and only some games make it on it. Rumor did come up that steam is working on a cloud thing
They use a custom OS, they aren't Windows laptops. Steam would need to support Chrome OS.
Chrome OS would have to support the games as well. AFAIK, Chrome OS doesn't use any standard gaming API that's used for most PC games like DX or Vulcan. If the chromebooks become powerful enough to support gaming, that'd be a good thing for them to implement into the system, because the high level API's they use for Google devices now is not good for higher end gaming. Some game engines can overcome this, but chrome books tend to use high level OS layers for applications.
They would have to revamp a lot of the core features of the Chromebook to make them by useful for gaming. Trading the current low end Pentium and Celeron cpus for Amd Zen 2 Apus would be a good start, but they would also have to finally ditch the low end DDR3 and 32/64 GB eMMC storage that most of Chromebook are still produced with.
Or they could just port Steam Link and call it a day.
That would kind of making the chrome book, pointless if the specs would have to get bumped to support steam.
Chrome books are suppose to be cheap laptops.
And they have stadia
🙄
Most games on steam have very low system requirements. Most people ignore these games, but they are there.
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Google has now announced the Google Stadia Release date. Google Stadia Founder's Editions and Google Stadia Premiere Editions will both begin shipping "in the same order that pre-orders were received." Shortly after Stadia packages begin shipping, those who pre-ordered will receive a code to activate their Stadia account and Stadia Pro.
Selling out founders edition everywhere is saying how bad it's going to fail .... hmmmmm
I agree that sometimes this IS the case, but what makes you so sure this is the same?
Google Stadia fundamentally misunderstands its target audience. Casual users aren't willing to adopt this new business model.
It's hard to put a positive spin on something that isn't shaping up to be very good. Some articles try, but they tend to be more in the context of pushing the Stadia as leading us into the future rather than focusing on why it's the future or why we want a streaming-only device and completely ignoring the potential drawbacks to getting one of these things.
No upfront hardware costs and you get to play the newest next gen game, that's nice for casuals who don't want to fork out $600 with games.
@traumadisaster But as far as I know this PoS will only be able to play PS4/XB1 type games. That's not next-gen, and it will get left behind when the new systems release. I believe there is still a hardware cost too, albeit a lower one. I would think that casuals would rather just stick to their phones than fork over even that much and add an additional subscription to their monthly bills. So, I have no idea who the intended audience is for this thing.
I can see a revision in proving happening at some stage you can't expect people to pay 10 a month to play games they already brought
This could be big if it truly is a non-streaming console.
They might make a dent in the industry if they sell a super powered console at half the price of Sony/MS and Google usually go that route when they want to break into a new market, since they can afford it.
Cheap + 3rd Party games could work.
GDC 2019 going to be huge.
Will it be a 3DO? A Phillips CDi? An Atari Jaguar maybe? Or could they possibly create a system with the best of PS4, Xbox, and Switch in one system with a splash of PC? Whatever it is, PS5 and Xbox One 2 (Microsoft loves numbers lol) are surely not more than 2 years out.
Some recent rumors have been putting Google and Sega in some sort of relationship together. I’m not sure if true, but if they did work together it could be interesting. They could call it the Google Genesis, GG for short ;)
Sega is a shadow of its former self really, but the name still has some Clout and some of their published games are still pretty solid—but are rarer than they used to be of course.
I’m curious what it will be though, even if no Sega happens, but it’s a big wait and see before hyping it up. Although with Google’s cash flow they could easily try their hand in the market, much like MS did with the original Xbox. It’s just what will they bring to the table to make it stand out?
Will they only show third party games or have they been quietly picking up other studios and then break the news at GDC?
Streaming only? Dedicated hardware and streaming? VR or no? Because google has the cash for any of it really. Google Play (Mobile) might not be what a lot of gamers consider that special, but it could introduce some “gamers” to the more traditional gaming world as well (consoles or even handheld or hybrid). Rumors lately though say it’s supposed to be powerful.