Gadgetory

welcome to stream economy where we talk about all the most interesting news across movies TV shows and games this week Google has announced project stream this is a technical test that Google says will push the limits of what's possible when streaming games through your browser they're kicking off the experiment by partnering with Ubisoft to let gamers stream Assassin's Creed Odyssey without a console the program kicks off on October 10th of this year and runs all the way through January of 2019 and if you want to apply there are some requirements first you got to have a laptop or desktop PC so that you can play the game via Chrome browser you have to be over the age of 17 you got to live in the United States and lastly you have to have a connection speed of over 25 megabytes a second if you meet all those criteria and you do get into the test great news Sasa's Creed Odyssey will be provided to you for free all of those things sound great but is project stream a big deal and even if it isn't how could it affect the future of the video game industry well let's talk about it it is a big deal because it's console free that is a huge money saver for a lot of people on top of that it could eliminate a lot of cross play issues particularly you Sony looking at you you also don't have to download games no pre installations none of that stuff you just pick it up start streaming immediately and play the game and lastly this opens up mobile gaming for people who have laptops that aren't gamer laptops I see you Razer fans but it opens it up for everybody else to be able to play triple-a games on the go so how is it not quite a big deal well first thing is the average internet connection of a US citizen is about eighteen point seven megabytes per second and for comparison Netflix is recommendation for one single 4k stream is 25 megabytes per second just like project stream for now the highest quality for project stream is 1080p resolution at 60 frames a second but that could get better over time on top of that multiplayer is still a massive question mark a lot of you guys made it abundantly clear on our backward compatibility episode that you love having physical copies of your games and last console exclusives are still probably gonna be a thing exclusives can be major drivers of console purchases so I doubt Sony or Microsoft would be interested in putting blockbusters like spider-man or the next Halo on another platform so those are the arguments for or against project stream I'm really curious about your thoughts drop those down in the comments but let's talk about the future at this point what could project stream be gunning for in terms of an end game we've come up with three different ideas or theories that we think are the likeliest number one being google has not yet announced some type of hardware that would work with project stream that is as affordable and easy to use as a chromecast it would work kind of like an Nvidia shield but instead of streaming from your PC it would stream directly from Google servers this would be a super interesting move on Google's part and also the most aggressive it would certainly set up some kind of showdown between Microsoft Sony and Google and if you're wondering why I haven't mentioned Nintendo well I don't think this is of too much concern to them nor would they be interested in it since the company traditionally keeps to itself and the switch is really its own animal that brings me to option number two which is that Google licenses out project stream to console manufacturers so they don't have to make any hardware this is an interesting choice one that is definitely in everybody plays nice option if you want to feel good on the inside and could potentially allow for somebody like Microsoft for example to let you log in and link your Xbox Live account and play any games that you've purchased via the Chrome browser super interesting but there's always a third option and this is the option I think is the most likely which is Google uses project stream to launch its own subscription service this is kind of like a Netflix meets team for games and it would partner with developers and publishers instead of the big three console makers I am terribly intrigued by this idea and I would love to see it happen but it does come with its own set of challenges namely companies like Blizzard and EA already have game launchers and I don't think they're interested in sharing any of those profits with a company like Google so maybe scratch that part of it however if Google can you buy or contract out a game development team to create some really amazing platform exclusives we might be looking at a gaming Netflix and that is really really exciting so I am super looking forward to what project stream has in store oh I am so curious what you guys think a project stream are you interested in it what do you think their goal is drop those thoughts down in the cold please thanks so much for watching don't forget to put those thoughts down in the comments on project stream I'm going on vacation for a few weeks we will be back with brand-new episodes in November until then you can watch last week's episode right up here and for more stream economy click right over this way you