What is Google's endgame? Which 5 industries will they change? What's next for Google Daydream Virtual Reality?

What is Google’s endgame? Which 5 industries will they change? What’s next for Google Daydream Virtual Reality?

Quick Recap: What is Google Stadia?

If you haven’t yet heard – earlier this week at the Game Developer Conference, Google released what many believe to be the future of gaming, Google Stadia.

While the company did not release details of when to expect the gaming service, the presentation included a gameplay test of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. And, in every sense of the word, it was amazing.

Imagine 8K resolution at 60 frames per second gaming where the TV remote is your entire hardware investment.

Google Stadia is all about instant access. Just click on the game link on YouTube and start gaming on any device – tv, phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop. Furthermore, you can add more players.

Not only could the gamer move from one device to another while playing the same game, but all the displays maintained an impressive 1080p, 60fps stream during the switch.

How does Google intend to power such a revolutionary gaming experience, you ask? The answer is simple – its data center network.

Google’s cloud computing power is the equivalent of a console running at 10.7 GPU teraflops – more power than the X-Box One and PS4 Pro combined.

Needless to say, this changes everything. Here is why.

5 Ways Google Stadia will Impact the Industry

Outlined below are five ways Google hopes Stadia will create great windfalls for the company:

1. A Play for Cloud Wars Dominance

Google has invested heavily in its data infrastructure. During the presentation, they talked up their fiber network and their global presence of data centers which include over 7500 edge node locations around the globe.

With the interconnected racks in the data centers, gamers can enjoy high-powered graphics, memory, and storage required to run the most demanding games.

According to the head of engineering for Google Stadia, Majd Bakar;

“Stadia is built on infrastructure that no one else has.”

This gives them not only a strategic advantage but also an incentive to monetize this infrastructure.

The more network and cloud utilization, the faster Google can scale its infrastructure, and this will help them to win the cloud wars.

2. App Store Monetization: The Sequel

The app store monetization play is coming to an end.

From Fortnite, Netflix and Spotify rebelling against the “app store tax” and the growing voices against monopolistic behavior, it’s clear that the high app store margins are no longer sustainable.

While developers are no longer willing to pay such a margin for a simple listing of their application, Google can keep the gravy train going by throwing in cloud infrastructure to enable delivery of their games on multiple device formats.

3. Strengthen Position in Streaming Wars

YouTube has been a market leader for a long time in video streaming and remained relatively unchallenged for many years.

Streaming services like Netflix prompted Google to produce Youtube Originals and offer YouTube premium without advertising. Cable cutting services like Playstation Vue and Hulu (and soon Apple TV streaming) prompted Google to compete with YouTube TV.

Twitch and Amazon caused YouTube to provide more services oriented to gamers. Google is hoping that Stadia can be the nail in Twitch’s coffin by enabling tight integration with YouTube.

During the presentation, Bakar noted that:

“In addition to the stream you get as a player, there is a second simultaneous stream at 4k, 60FPS that you can choose to share directly to YouTube from the Stadia data center.”

4. Leapfrog Hardware-Dependent Giants XBox and PlayStation

Google Stadia will offer fierce competition against Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation, who require you to invest in $300+ game consoles and do not provide portability or cross-device compatibility.

Even the issue of cross-platform multiplayer made so apparent by the Fortnite craze this year becomes a thing of the past.

By democratizing hardware, anyone can now build a game hardware console, as long as it runs on Google. Furthermore, game developers will no longer have to tone down creative ambitions to fit humbler hardware.

Also, that hardware can be dirt cheap. Think $50 gaming controllers which have everything you need to play the latest games. Forget about outdated hardware and not being able to play the most recent games.

5. A Complete Game-Changer for Virtual Reality

I saved my best analysis for last, because this is the thing I’m really looking forward to as a result of the Stadia announcement.

Google Stadia is the difference maker when it comes to Virtual Reality. We already know that mass-market VR is not possible when people need $1000+ computer hardware to run it.

We also learned that mass market VR is not found in the kind of devices that need wires connecting them to computers, nor heavy VR backpacks.

Instead, it’s in the likes of Microsoft Hololens 2 and Oculus Quest – who are wholly powered on the device itself – that will push the industry forward. But those devices can’t enable the best VR experiences because they need to conserve power.

It’s now a virtual certainty that only time separates us from a Google announcement of a self-contained VR headset with inside tracking, 4 to 8k resolution panels, 6 degrees of motion wireless controllers and hours of battery life, combined with desktop-grade performance at a sub $400 price-point. – Alexander De Ridder

Stadia will enable an experience on par with the most expensive PC hardware while conserving power. According to Apple, the iPhone 7 can last up to 13 hours of Wireless video playback. Imagine an iPhone-sized battery in a VR-style device allowing you to play the best VR quality games for an entire day. This is a game changer.

Paired with the Google Daydream app store, hardware makers are already plotting to take on Oculus all over Asian board rooms.

At a minimum, Google Stadia is going to completely revolutionize how we game. It fundamentally pivots the gaming industry towards a cloud-based, low consumer cost strategy that anybody can see is a sure-fire winner.

Although there’s no fixed date yet for the Google Stadia release, it won’t take long for it to become a global gaming platform.