The much-anticipated announcement by Google at the Game Developers Conference 2019 finally took place last night in which the company has revealed its “vision” for the future of gaming. It comes in the form of Stadia, a cloud gaming service.
Leveraging on the company’s massive amount of datacenter clusters throughout the world, Google claimed that Stadia is able to deliver gaming experience at up to 60fps in 4K resolution with HDR support and surround sound. Powered by Linux-based servers that are equipped with custom GPU from AMD alongside an unnamed custom x86 server-class CPU, the company aimed to push further into the 8K realm and 120+ fps framerate in future.
Google further revealed that Stadia is not just for playing games. Since it is highly integrated with YouTube, gamers can stream their gameplay directly to the platform in 4K at 60fps as well. Additionally, they can also access games on Stadia directly from a video on the platform; to the extent that gamers can be pinpoint directly to a specific part of the game.
Not only that, Google has also demonstrated that gamers can even initiate Google Assistant, ask for a game walkthrough video, and watch it directly during a game session on Stadia without going out of the game.
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The company also pointed out that Stadia doesn’t require any dedicated box and can be enjoyed on Chrome browser on one’s laptop or Chromecast if gamers prefer to play games on Stadia through their TV. Naturally, smartphones and tablets are supported as well.
The only hardware announcement by Google at GDC last night was the Stadia controller which has generally been revealed through a patent recently. This doesn’t mean gamers need to use the controller to play on Stadia though as the service is apparently able to support virtually any USB controller or mouse and keyboard combo.
There is no exact launch date for Stadia at the moment but nevertheless, Google stated that it will be launched in 2019 itself with US, Canada, UK, and Europe being the first markets to receive it. No mention of Malaysia for the time being but we’ll keep you posted if we hear any updates regarding it from Google.
