Google presents Stadia, the "streaming" platform ready to revolutionize gaming

At GDC 2019 Stadia was presented , the new streaming platform created by Google , which will make it possible to use video games through the cloud on all platforms capable of running Chrome . The launch is expected in 2019 and Doom Eternal will be one of the first titles to support the new platform by shooting at a resolution of 4K and 60 frames per second .

Stadia will therefore not be a real console but a service accessible simultaneously on desktops, TVs, smartphones and tablets. During the event, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai , stated that games should be "instantly usable and accessible to all". A completely new way of using interactive content is promoted with Stadia. Google's intent is to make information universally accessible as quickly as possible. This requirement will be made possible by the capabilities guaranteed by the data centers and the network infrastructure of the American giant.

At the launch, Stadia will support streaming in 4K and 60 frames per second with surround sound and HDR support , while in the future Google plans to reach a resolution of 8K and 120 frames per second . General manager Phil Harrison also assured that the cross-platform will be supported. Stadia is therefore a new gaming platform that offers instant access to its library of games on any type of screen, be it TV, laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone.

The goal is to make games available with resolutions up to 4K and 60 frames per second with HDR and surround sound. The platform will be accessible by the end of this year in various countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and most of Europe.

"To develop Stadia, we first of all thought about what it means to be passionate about video games, and we are committed to bringing together two distinct worlds: the world of those who play and the world of those who love to watch others play, thus removing the barriers. only to the games we create and to which we play, but also to the passionate communities ", Google writes in the official statement.

With the support of the Google data center, Stadia aims to overcome the limitations imposed by traditional consoles and PC hardware. Players will have an up-to-date platform, while developers will have access to almost unlimited resources to create more extensive and ambitious titles. Each Stadia server will contain a custom AMD x86 CPU that runs at 2.7GHz with 16GB of RAM and a 56 compute unit GPU . Everything will be able to evolve rapidly with the support of Google's infrastructure.

The company explained that it had collaborated with AMD in designing a custom GPU equipped with "over ten power teraflops" , which will be combined with a custom CPU for each Stadia rendering instance. Google has also stated that it has entered into partnerships with Unreal and Unity to offer "full support to the most popular game engines known to the developer community".

A distinctive feature of this new system will be the method of use with other Google services. In a sector where more than 200 million people follow daily content related to gaming on YouTube, Stadia will allow you to play many of those titles with a simple click. For example, watching a streamer play Assassin's Creed Odyssey , simply press the "play now" button to be redirected to the game purchase and be able to immerse yourself in the game session right where you were following it in live streaming. All this will be guaranteed without downloads, updates, patches or installations thanks to cloud support.

The service will be usable with all existing USB devices, but a dedicated controller was also presented during the presentation . "When we designed the Stadia controller, we asked the gamers directly what they want in a controller," Google explained.

“First of all, we developed a direct connection from the Stadia controller to our data center via Wi-Fi, to get the best possible gaming performance. The controller also includes: a button for instant acquisition, saving and sharing gameplay up to 4k with extraordinary resolution, a button to interact with the Google Assistant and a microphone ".

The head of the research and development department, Erin Hoffman-John , pointed out that shared-screen multiplayer games normally have to render two scenes simultaneously, which translates into resource limitation for each of the two available screens. With Stadia, a local cooperative game allows you to optimize the display of both participants thanks to cloud processing. Stadia will also allow players to share game states, allowing in fact the sharing of individual challenges or sessions with other users through a simple link, as illustrated by Dylan Cuthbert of Q-Games .
At the end of the presentation, Jade Raymond took the stage . The former Ubisoft and Electronic Arts producer announced that he is the head of Stadia Games , a division that will create new video games and support third-party studios. Below is the complete video of the presentation.