Earlier this year reports claimed Google was looking to take a bigger leap into gaming with a cloud-powered streaming and accompanying hardware platform codenamed Yeti.
After a quiet few months, reports are once again circulating suggesting that Google is looking to challenge the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft by offering high-end games.
According to five sources speaking with Kotaku, Google is stepping up its efforts and has spent recent trade shows like GDC and E3 gauging potential interest from developers. Today’s report even suggests Google is interested buying out game studios outright.
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If the report comes to fruition, it appears Google is pitching Yeti to gaming insiders as a streaming service that could offer AAA games through lower-powered hardware. All of the heavy lifting would be done via the cloud, meaning those without gaming rigs could enjoy high-end gaming experiences.
“Imagine playing The Witcher 3 within a tab on Google Chrome,” one source familiar with the Yeti platform told Giz.
This would make it similar to something like Nvidia’s GeForce Now service, which allows top games to be streamed via every day PC and Mac titles. Sony’s PlayStation Now also operates in a similar space.
Google is looking to offer some sort of hardware, the report claims, but it unclear whether the company will be looking towards something like the Nvidia Shield or another Android TV-style device that could be used to stream the titles and connect various peripherals.
Kotaku also mentions information from sources it calls ‘pie-in-the-sky’. Those in the know claimed there’ll be integration with YouTube enabling gamers to easily bring up walkthrough videos as an overlay whenever they get stuck.
There remains skepticism among gaming industry types, according to the report, some of whom cited Google’s history of aggressively exploring a space and then quickly abandoning the initiatives.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
