A symbol of Google’s further embrace of the game market
At the Games Developer Summit held earlier, in addition to announcing that it will turn its streaming game service Stadia into a game experience platform, Google also announced that it will make the Steam game service platform stationed in specific Chromebook devices, thereby expanding its presence in the game market. layout.
Stadia streaming game technology will become a new B2B commercial tool
Although Googlew can’t become a “game developer” after all, but obviously in addition to cooperating with AT&T on Stadia streaming technology to create a customized streaming game service, Google is more prepared to make Stadia an easier platform to experience games.
In a related note, Google said that it will use Stadia streaming game technology to allow users to directly experience game content through Google Search, YouTube, or social media advertising links without additional logins. On the developer side, games originally created with Unreal Engine, Unity, etc. can be quickly ported to the Stadia platform through translation tools, and they can also be automatically translated through Microsoft DirectX API through tools such as DXVK.
Such a design will turn Stadia into a B2B commercial tool, for example, allowing game companies to promote game content in this way, and making it easier for more players to experience it in the form of online streaming, and even for large-scale exhibitions such as E3. Players who come to the scene can also experience the new game through online means.
Before that, Google has made it easier for users to experience Android platform games through Instant Apps, without having to download and install them on mobile phones in advance, and now obviously hopes to make more game content available through Stadia streaming technology in the same way , so that players can experience it more easily.
Steam Services Finally Coming to Chromebooks
On the other hand, Google also announced that certain Chromebook models will be able to use Steam, that is, the plan revealed by Chrome OS product management director Kan Liu in an interview in 2020, mainly to add support for Linux through Chrome OS Based on the application service, and Steam currently continues to strengthen the use mode of operating in the Linux environment, so it can implement the use of Steam services on Chromebooks.
And only certain Chromebook devices can support it. The reason is actually due to the requirements of hardware specifications. Obviously, at least the Intel Core i5 processor must be used, and the memory capacity must be above 7GB.
However, this feature is still in alpha testing at this stage, so it may take a while before it is actually implemented. However, since Valve has successfully made Steam run on the Steam Deck hardware in a Linux environment, it should not face too many difficulties in running the Steam service on the Chrome OS platform in a similar mode.