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Google is bringing an early test version of a game streaming service – Project Stream – to a limited selection of the public, and it’s not mucking about: the first game to use the Chrome-based streaming service will be Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Ubisoft’s mega-blockbuster will be free to play for those who are able to sign up, and will be fully playable/streamable through Google’s Chrome browser.
Testing will begin October 5 and is open to a limited number of participants, requiring no specific high specs on your PC or laptop – just a broadband connection of around 25 megabits. Basically if you’re classed as ‘superfast’, you should be okay.
The official site offers the chance to sign up for the test – it’s US-only for now, though, so anyone from outside the States will just be met with a location-based error. Unless a VPN is involved, cough.
Over on the Google blog, meanwhile, more details come to the fore about how the project came together and some more specifics behind it.
“The idea of streaming such graphically-rich content that requires near-instant interaction between the game controller and the graphics on the screen poses a number of challenges,” the post says, “When streaming TV or movies, consumers are comfortable with a few seconds of buffering at the start, but streaming high-quality games requires latency measured in milliseconds, with no graphic degradation.”
This is the second announcement of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey making its way to the home via streaming services in a short period – Nintendo recently announced the game’s impending availability on Switch in Japan using the power of internet beams.
Meanwhile, other big publishers like Take Two and EA have been reading from the same hymn sheet, singing the praises of streaming and saying ‘it will happen’. With Google behind it, that may well come to pass.
Sony, meanwhile, added the ability to download games on PlayStation Now – a boon to a service that hasn’t quite got to grips with the whole lag situation in the most part.
