Google is Looking to Start a Game Streaming Service

Streaming services are all the rage lately. Why buy something when you can rent many things, anyway? Now it seems Google is looking into streaming. Not movies, but video games.

The massive success of streaming services, like Netflix and Hulu, prompted game companies to come up with their own video game alternatives. Perfect examples of this are PlayStation Now and NVIDIA's GeForce Now. According to a report by The Information, Google is currently testing their own game service, codenamed "Yeti." Not only that, but they are also testing hardware for the service. That sounds like a Google game console to me.

Don't get too excited just yet. A hardware product was supposed to release in 2017, and considering the near silence about the project, it probably isn't doing too well. The idea of a new console hasn't held up in recent years, and it's difficult to get developers on board for a new platform, and even harder to get a player base to develop. OUYA is a great example of this.

There remains to be a technical complication regarding the streaming of video games. Simply, it's laggy. With movies and TV shows, as long as it loads the show, you're fine. With video games, you need immediate reaction times from constant input. Even a small amount of latency is enough to render a game unplayable.

NVIDIA found a solution to this by having a remote computer handle the graphical demanding aspect of the game for their GeForce Now service. Of course, a company as massive as Google should have the funds and resources available to create a solution, though we have yet to see it.

Would you play a Google game console?