Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Doom Eternal back Google Stadia proposal

Google Stadia's Head of Stadia Games and Entertainment, Jade Raymond, at the Game Developers Conference presentation on March 19. — AFP Relaxnews

Supporting Google's game streaming service at the March 19 presentation were Assassin's Creed Odyssey, used for a late 2018 public test, the upcoming Doom Eternal, while key personnel on the project have links to PlayStation, Xbox and Ubisoft.

Tech and data company Google packed a lot into its hour-long presentation at the 2019 Game Developers Conference, compressing its most salient points into a three-minute recap after the event.

Rather than making a home console, Google is expanding its YouTube and Android video gaming presence through game streaming – online server farms do the work, sending visuals over fast Internet connections to players on desktops, laptops, TVs, tablets, or phones.

YouTube could become a major in-road for players and viewers to access Stadia: "You just need to click on a YouTube video or link and you can be playing your game instantly," explained Phil Harrison, an ex-PlayStation and Xbox executive who is now a Google VP.

The service aims to "connect game developers, players, and YouTube creators," Harrison said. A Stream Connect function allows splitscreen multiplayer, Crowd Play lets YouTube viewers join the same online sessions as a hosting livestream creator, and the voice-operated Google Assistant is on hand to find related videos.

Late 2018's Ancient Greek action adventure Assassin's Creed Odyssey had been used as part of a limited public test and featured during the Stadia presentation.

This time, Stadia is upping Project Stream's 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second to 4K with HDR effects and 60 fps at launch.

Doom Eternal was the event's other high-profile endorsement, though while Id Software executive and game director Marty Stratton was on stage, there wasn't any new in-game footage to display its Stadia performance; the violent, gory hell-repelling shooter was last shown in August 2018.

Sports title NBA 2K featured during a sequence about Stadia's Crowd Play feature (youtu.be/nUih5C5rOrA?t=3711), and the chairwoman of Spanish studio Tequila Works (Rime) illustrated a use-case for Stadia's visual style prototyping tech (youtu.be/nUih5C5rOrA?t=3258).

Finally, Canada's ex-Ubisoft producer Jade Raymond was announced as the head of internal development division Stadia Games and Entertainment.

She was heavily involved in the launch of the Assassin's Creed franchise as a whole, since working on the Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs series for the same company, then leading Electronic Arts' Motive and Visceral Games studios before heading to Google. – AFP Relaxnews