Google at Game Developers Conference 2019: What to Expect

Google might launch a dedicated controller for the game streaming service at the event.

Google is set to announced is own game streaming platform at the Game Developers Conference 2019.

(Photo: The Quint/iStockphotos)

Google has been an active participant at the Game Developers Conference every year although 2019 is touted to be a very important phase for the tech giant.

Google, for the very first time, is hosting an entire keynote where it is slotted to announce its own browser-based game streaming platform at the event in San Francisco today.

Google had already started to prep for this announcement since last year when it had unveiled its Project Stream which allowed users to stream console-like gaming content through Google’s Chrome browser.

As an experiment, Google has tested running Ubisoft’s Assasin’s Creed Odyssey in a chrome tab which reportedly streaming smoothly via Google’s online servers and not on gaming consoles or PCs.

Here’s the link where you can watch the keynote live and follow all the updates and announcements from Google:

The ace in the pack here is that this technology opens a window of opportunity for gamers who don’t have to bank on heavy hardware and can simply game on a device which can support a Google Chrome tab. This also negates the unnecessary need to upgrade the hardware in order to run dated game titles.

Rumour has it that the streaming service will be made available across almost any kind of device which includes phones, TVs, Macs, PCs and even consoles.

While the idea of this kind of a streaming service has been floated around before, people always ran into some kind of barricade due to latency issues. Google is confident that the amount of data centres it has around the world would be more than sufficient to work this project.

Since Odyssey was used to run the pilot project it is likely that Ubisoft will fall into Google’s plan for this project. Google also announced on Twitter accompanied by ID Software (the makers of DOOM) at the event so we can expect some news in that department.

Despite the fact that the focus of the event is moreover going to be around the software bit of gaming, it is rumoured that Google will also introduce a controller with dedicated streaming capabilities.

Render image of the controller that could be bundled with the game streaming service.(Photo: Google)

Many rumours suggest that you’ll also be able to use an Xbox controller bundled with the Chromecast. This could mean a dedicated session for Chromecast upgrades.

As for the games, it’s unlikely that Google will announce any exclusives at the event however the tie up with existing publishers will give way to other games developed by Ubisoft and ID Software. Or, PUBG maybe?