Google announces Stadia, its brand new streaming service for video games

And it won't require you to buy a brand new console

Google has announced its big foray into the video game market with Stadia, a console-free, streaming-only gaming platform.

Confirmed today (March 19) during a keynote event at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Stadia will not require users to purchase a brand new console. Games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom Eternal will instead be made available on a cloud-based, Netflix-like service, which will be accessible through a wide selection of existing electronic devices and will be playable over a regular Wi-Fi connection.

Gamers will be able to access titles (which, Google says, will be streamed at 4K resolution at 60 frames per second in HDR) on this Google-powered streaming service through Chromecast-enabled TVs, Chrome web browsers and Google Pixel devices. While a separate console won’t be released, Google will bring out a Stadia-enabled controller which will feature a special button that will enable users to share in-play clips straight to YouTube.

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You can watch Google’s teaser trailer for Stadia below.

“There was a lot of speculation that we were going to be making a console, but that’s actually part of our strategy, we want to be completely screen agnostic,” Google Vice President Phil Harrison told CNN Business ahead of the official launch. “We don’t want players to be spending hundreds of dollars, sometimes thousands of dollars, to create a gaming rig in their home.”

Stadia is expected to launch later this year in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe.

In other recent video game news, a spokesperson for Eminem recently downplayed reports which claimed that the rapper had signed a deal with WWE for appearances on TV and upcoming video game releases by the wrestling entertainment group.

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