Just earlier this week at GDC 2019, Google revealed Stadia, a new service that allows gamers to play video games across multiple devices via the cloud. While more detailed information about this service is still unavailable as of now, Google Vice President Phil Harrison has offered some further insights into it in an interview.
When asked by GameSpot about Stadia-exclusive games, Harrison shared: "It was a conversation that I had with Google leadership before I joined the company. [My] point of view was in order to really deliver on the promise of this platform, we had to build our own games. We had to build our own experiences, and that was a very fundamental, strategic direction that we needed to move in."
He added, "I understand that [for a gamer] the word 'exclusive' can sometimes be a challenging terminology. [I would] rather we moved the narrative towards [games] that are built specifically for a data center. And if those games also show up on other streaming platforms, that's okay, because what that means is that the developers are starting to innovate and think about the future and [build] a 21st century game, rather than a 20th century game."
Naturally, any Google-made game that comes in the future will be available exclusively on Stadia, as clarified by the Vice President. Also at GDC 2019, Google announced that it has established a new studio that's currently headed by gaming industry veteran Jade Raymond, who previously held leading positions at both Ubisoft and EA. There is no information about what specific projects or games that this studio is working on right now.
As for the pricing model for Stadia, Harrison confirms that one is already in existence, but Google is not willing to discuss it just yet. Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, thinks that Google’s upcoming streaming service Stadia will have several pricing models at launch. "Either you buy full price and you play; or you will be able to also register, possibly, to play either one hour or two hours a day. There will be plenty of ways," he said.
One thing we know for sure is that Stadia will not support offline downloads. In Harrison’s words, it’s "not technically possible," and “would be a compromise of [Google’s] vision."
Stadia is planned to launch within this year in certain western regions, including the US, Canada, UK, and "most of" Europe. Currently, only Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the upcoming Doom Eternal are confirmed for this service.
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