Google recently revealed it was launching a service that could finally bring streaming games to the masses. What is more important, it could do the same with AAA games, being that the project is using the new game in the Assassin's Creed series, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as a working example. Simply put, Project Stream is a means of providing gaming content to players using nothing more than Google’s Chrome browser. This means no special hardware demands and no additional cloud-based installation packages. This makes the concept widely different from NVIDIA’s the Shield which also allows for the streaming of games to take place.
Instead, Google is claiming that only 25Mbps or more of download bandwidth will be needed for the game to stream properly. It should then provide an experience very similar if not identical to the games being installed on the player’s local drive.
With this piece of news, many immediately began to wonder if the same principle could be applied to Chrome browsers on Android devices. In theory, they too could be used for streaming games at the same quality as long as the connection is at the required level. Practically, there is the idea of players not being able to use a desktop-like keyboard for control, while also having many issues with the resolution because of the device’s display size.
However, mobile-first games or those with a simplified UI could, in theory, work using a Project Stream even on Android devices just as good as on any desktop computer. But, would Google want to provide this opportunity and with it compromise the Google Play earnings from games? Realistically, the most likely option would mean some type of porting of PC and Mac games to Android mobile device where they could be played as a streaming service right in the mobile Chrome browser. Pretty wild.