At the 2019 GDC (Game Developers Conference) keynote, the big lads from Google announced a groundbreaking new development for the gaming world. Google announced Stadia, a cloud based streaming service that will be able to let anybody, anywhere play whatever game that they want on any platform that can run Google Chrome web browser. The CEO of Google Sundar Pichai said that all games should be instantly enjoyable and everyone should be able to have access.

Stadia will give you the opportunity to go from watching a game on YouTube to physically playing the game within seconds, no matter what platform you are using. You can play graphically demanding games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey on a mobile phone. In the video linked below, you see that they play Assassins Creed Odyssey on an Apple Mac laptop, a PC with extremely low specs, a mobile phone, tablet and a TV. As long as you are able to run a Google Chrome browser you will be able to have access to these games without having to worry about what hardware that you might have.

The head of engineering for Stadia states that all this is made possible because of its incredible data center network. Fibre Optics and sub sea cables run between hundreds and hundreds of points and have more than 7500 edge node locations across the whole world all connected through their backbone. This means that you will experience less latency within games because you will have connections closer to you around the globe. Stadia is built on an infrastructure that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. It is a unique infrastructure that can catapult gaming into the next generation.

There is no physical console or hardware that is going to be released with Google Stadia, it will purely be cloud based. A controller will be released with Stadia that will give you access to certain features and will link to your specified platform through WiFi connection. Whether you're using a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, tablet or your television you will be able to use your own controller or mouse and keyboard. It is not necessary to buy the Stadia controller, but you will have access to other features.

On stage at the GDC, the crowd was able to witness the seamless transition from watching a game trailer of Assassin's Creed on YouTube to almost instantly transitioning into playing the game. On top of that, the Google VP showed how effortless it was to switch between devices with the Stadia controller. With all the rendering happening on a server it's literally a matter of loading up a stream in order to play the games.

This, unfortunately, means that it is all dependent on your internet connection. Google suggest a connection of at least 25MBs in order to fully enjoy the benefits of Stadia, more details will be released closer to the time. The estimated release date for Stadia is this year (2019). If you think that there couldn't possibly more, there will be integration with YouTube content creators. Players will have the opportunity to join a queue with their favorite streamers and play with them while they're streaming. No more firing up your console or PC and hoping you get into the same lobby as them!

What does this mean in terms of cheaters or hackers? Well seeing as though this system completely detaches you, the user, from the machine you are playing on, cheating at any level will be almost impossible! This is fantastic news. Better latency with less hackers, that's the South African gamers dream. This, however, does mean that you will not physically have the game downloaded on your PC. Some might be okay with this, others might find this a little unsettling not having the gaming on their PC for offline play. This will purely be an online service.

What do you think about this release from Google? Do you believe that Google Stadia will be the future of gaming?