Google is also expected to make a game console, though it's unlikely to directly compete with home game consoles in terms of horsepower.

The Xbox One gamepad is a standard in PC gaming, as well as being the main gamepad for the Xbox One game console. Microsoft

Google isn't likely to make a game console as powerful as the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, or even one as powerful as the Nintendo Switch, but it does need to make some form of hardware for its service to function on TVs.

What's most likely is Google releases a very inexpensive piece of hardware that acts as a means of accessing a game streaming library — a bare-bones Chromecast-like device rather than a brawny PS4-like device.

That device could potentially serve as a means of enabling Bluetooth gamepads to function on a television, and as a means of accessing Google's game streaming service. It could be as small as a Chromecast or as big as a cable box. It could come with a Google-made gamepad, or something else, or nothing at all!

We simply don't know just yet. Google has yet to confirm that a hardware device is even in the works.

We can, however, assume that Google isn't making a powerful gaming console to compete with home consoles. Why's that? We'd have heard about it! Between research and development costs, associated business deals with game makers, and hardware production, these things leak.

Look no further than the current crop of home game consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft — all of which leaked heavily before launch, like so many "secret" hardware projects before them.