CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, starts Google’s announcement of Stadia at Game Developer Conference 2019 in San Francisco by explaining how resourcefulness, creativity, and collaboration to solve problems in computer science, including games, are how Google succeeds. He mentions Google’s progress in AI with DeepMind Technologies including AlphaStar, which uses a neural network to play Blizzard Entertainment’s real-time strategy game, StarCraft II, and Waymo, which is able to simulate traffic scenarios that cannot be tested safely otherwise. But we are here for games.
For the past two years, Google has worked on game streaming technology. In Fall of 2018, they had a public test with Project Stream playing Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which played at 1080p at 60 framers per second. Project Stream brought a AAA game to any device with a Chrome browser and an Internet connection. This is where Stadia will be so powerful, its universality, just like other streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Google’s own YouTube.
Google wants Stadia to be a game platform for everyone. Pichai emphasizes this and the barriers to playing some high-end games, such as needing a capable computer or dedicated game system with high definition graphics. A goal of Stadia is to be not only accessible, but instantly enjoyable.
Phil Harrison, Vice President and General Manager of Google, enters the stage to tell us that the vision for Stadia is, “one place for all the ways we play. It is focused on gamers, inspired by developers, and amplified by YouTube creators.” One of the focuses will be connecting players with developers with content creators. This is something the video game streaming platform, Twitch, has done very well. YouTube has implemented livestreaming in a similar manner, also allowing live commenting.
Project Stream Was Tested Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Image Source: YouTube/Google
In an effort to create, scale, and connect, a Play button will be available in some gaming videos on YouTube. The example given is how it would look in a trailer for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. This button would bring the viewer turned player into the game nearly instantly. This instant access in Stadia means that gamers would be no longer stuck waiting on downloads and updates to play their games. Harrison explains that the data center is the platform, meaning that whether you use a television, desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet, you can play with Stadia. There is a live demo presented moving through all of these devices, including a slow desktop with as little processing power as they could find, each time picking up the device to the point in the game exactly where they left off on the prior. This is possible because the device is essentially just streaming a video, as the processing will all be done on Google’s servers.
Hello, Stadia controller. This controller will use WiFi to directly connect to Google’s data center, meaning you wouldn’t have to count on your device for any controller input. The controller features two important new buttons, according to Harrison and the giant video behind him. These buttons are the Share Button, which, of course, allows easy sharing to YouTube. There will also be the Google Assistant Button. This will help players get feature assistance when they need it as well as access videos to help them through a part in the game without completely taking them out of the experience.
The Stadia Controller Will Feature a Share Button. Image Source: YouTube/Google
The Head of Engineering for Stadia, Majd Bakar, takes the stage to discuss the innovations made to Google’s data centers to support Stadia. This is, of course, built on Google’s data center infrastructure, which is more expansive than any company in the world, bringing servers closer to the players, which is necessary for a low latency experience. This infrastructure will allow Stadia to launch with up to 4K, 60 frames per second, HDR, and surround sound with plans to build its way up to 8K. Bakar again emphasizes that “the data center is your platform” before giving us the specs for the servers. The GPU will have 10.7 teraflops of power (compared to PS4 Pro’s 4.2 and Xbox One X’s 6.0), 56 compute units, and feature HBM2 Memory. Its CPU will have a custom x86 processor, 2.7 GHz, and be hyperthreaded with AVX 2 technology. It will have 16 GB of RAM with up to 484GB/s transfer speed.
Stadia has partnered with Unreal Engine and Unity, the two largest open-source engines. There are many other engines that will have support, including Havok, the most popular physics engine for video games. These partners also include development studios, such as id Software. Marty Stratton, an Executive Producer for id Software, takes the stage to explain how a streaming platform might work with their games, such as Doom’s upcoming sequel Doom Eternal. The Doom franchise is known for being fast-paced first person shooters.
Multiplayer will be better than ever. Keeping traffic within the Google ecosystem will allow games to have a more predictable user experience. Currently, multiplayer is often largely impacted by the slowest internet connection. With processing happening server side, everyone will have a fair chance at real-time experience. Of course, this has other implications as well. While we have seen an explosion of the battle royale genre with games like Fortnite and Apex Legends featuring hundreds of players simultaneously interacting in a fast-paced environment. This could go up to thousands.
There’s more good news for multiplayer, though. This system will greatly increase the difficulty of cheating or hacking, which can a problem for many multiplayer experiences. There will also be cross-platform capabilities. This means that developers will be able to allow players on a PS4 to interact with players using Stadia.
Stadia’s Lead Designer for Research and Development, Erin Hoffman-John, takes the stage to tell us about what Google will be providing game developers. She provides a multiplayer demo by Tangent Games that showcases an interactive environment that can be destroyed in perfect synchronization. With Stream Connect, we will see the return of split screen multiplayer, what was the standard before Internet-based multiplayer became all the rage. We are shown how machine learning can benefit both small and large developers by Chairwoman of Tequila Works (developer of Deadlife and Rime), Luz Sancho. Style Transfer ML is a machine learning technology that learns from the video frame and a provided image.
Style Transfer ML Uses Machine Learning to Bring a Designer’s Vision to Life. Image Source: YouTube/Google
Dylan Cuthbert, from Q-Games, joins Hoffman-John to tell us about State Share. This will let players instantly share a moment from a game. This isn’t just a video, though. This is a link directly to a scenario in a game, basically copying save data and instantly sending it any method you’d like, whether it be YouTube, email, social media, or text message.
Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming at YouTube, discusses how YouTube and Stadia will be teaming up to provide a great experience for content creators and viewers. With fan engagement being a top priority of content creators, Wyatt says this will be “the most connected gamer experience ever.” Not just will creators be able to use State Share to let viewers play the same moments of a game, Crowd Play will allow creators to play games directly with their viewers while they stream. The Game Theorist, MatPat, joins Wyatt on stage to give the content creator’s point of view on how a stronger bond can be created with their audience throw Crowd Play and State Share.
Google now has their own first party game studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment, which will be developing games exclusively for the Stadia platform. This will be headed by Jade Raymond, the founder of Ubisoft Toronto. Stadia Games and Entertainment will also be working with partner studios to bring key tools and technology to large and small developers.
It looks like Stadia truly will facilitate their motto of Create, Scale, and connect. Developers can visit Stadia.dev to apply to create content for Stadia. They will also have access to Stadia Partners, which is a program to help developers bring their visions to market. Stadia will be launching in 2019 in US, Canada, UK, and Europe. You can watch the announcement video in its entirety on YouTube.