The annual Game Developer’s Conference is in San Francisco, CA, this week and Google is bringing a game changer – no pun intended.
Every year, video game developers and thousands of attendees descend upon Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco for the world’s largest professional gaming industry event.
The event’s official website says that attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games and immersive experiences.
“GDC [Game Developers Conference] brings together 28,000 attendees to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry with five days of education, inspiration, and networking at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.” GDC’s website says.
Google is scheduled to make a presentation at the event today, simply titled ‘Google Keynote (Presented by Google, Inc.)’, which will likely be about the upcoming console.
“Gather Around — Google has a game changer to show you.” GDC’s website says.
“All will be revealed at the Google Announcement at 10am on March 19, 2019.”
The console’s name has not yet been publicly announced, but many online sources are claiming that it is being called ‘Yeti’ inside the company.
We do know what the controller will roughly look like though, thanks to a patent published in January.
It will make use of Google’s logo colors blue, red, yellow and green; and quite uniquely sports a microphone button.
It is speculated that the so-called Yeti gaming console will offer a streaming service for video games, like the Netflix of gaming, which could very much be the game changer Google claims.
Currently, to play high-end video games, a gaming console or expensive computer is required.
Then, a user’s desired games need to be purchased and usually installed, which requires either a physical disc or an often-lengthy online download before use.
The opportunity to stream games entirely removes the purchase and installation, allowing users instant access to a plethora of games with a simple subscription service.
Google already showcased the capability to stream high-end video games using only their web browser and Chromebook laptop by doing all of the high-end rendering on the cloud instead of the local machine.
“Assassin’s Creedy Odyssey” was the game used to trial this during Google’s Project Stream, which beta tested the game-streaming technology.
Depending on its success, Yeti could pose a huge threat to traditional gaming consoles such as Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo.
The allure of a gaming platform with subscription-based access, no download times, no need for expensive computing technologies to run high-end games, and potentially access to one of the largest libraries of games is a lot to compete with.
To see what kind of details will be revealed today will be interesting.
Google’s presentation will run from 10am to 11:30am local time, and is sure to excite attendees and the gaming community at large.
UPDATE: The official name of Google’s console has been revealed as ‘Google Stadia’, not ‘Yeti’.
Mitchell has a Bachelor of Arts with Majors in Journalism and Foreign Relations; and a Diploma of Digital Design.