
Google Teases a Big Gaming Announcement for March 19th - rbanffy
https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/19/google-will-unveil-gaming-project-at-gdc/
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plopz
If it is the streaming thing the article mentioned, I just don't get it. How
do they get around the fact you introduce round trip delay to every input? Do
they somehow have a way to do client side prediction and reconciliation?

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ASpring
I don't think they get around it. For most genres except FPS the round trip
delay doesn't cause any issues in gameplay. What's an extra 60ms roundtrip
when most people have reaction times around 300ms?

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aaaaaaaaaaab
Here we go again, someone is conflating reaction time with latency
sensitivity...

Try the following: write a simple snake game in JS or whatever your preferred
language is. However, instead of turning the snake in the keyDown/keyUp event
handlers, start a 60ms timer and change direction only when the timer fires.
Experiment with various time intervals and snake speeds to find out what’s the
acceptable latency/speed region.

~~~
TomVDB
Have you by any chance done this? Care to share the results?

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aboutruby
Project Stream will probably allow those on Linux, macOS, and especially
ChromeOS to play most games, including recent ones. Which may let people
switch platform more easily and/or avoid dual-booting.

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akshayB
I wonder if the industry eventually plans to address In-App Purchase fees, it
is always worth it for small companies since it offers payment process,
presence at global level, marketing tools, international transactions and some
protection against fraud. But if you are a big game development company those
benefits don't add-up and you already would have those tools/frameworks
already in place.

~~~
dvh
I've implemented IAP on Android and it is absolutely disgusting garbage
looking API, worse than win32 api. Now it sits at 400 lines of ugly
boilerplate spaghetti code. It turned me into firm believer that Google (at
least Android branch) don't know how to do good API.

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schnevets
If it is Project Stream, Google better announce some serious partnerships
alongside the service. Their best bet would probably be to outright buy a
major publisher - maybe Ubisoft or Take-two has a price tag?

~~~
mrep
Why would they need to buy a publisher? I'm guessing they would just launch it
as a subscription service which gets you access to stream games and then you
would have to buy each game individually to play them.

~~~
Steltek
That's a dubious proposition. Spend a fair bit of money on games only to have
Google cancel the product later.

I mentioned Nvidia in another thread but they partnered with Valve/Steam to
stream games you purchase there. Steam is unlikely to suddenly fold up and
vanish.

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mrep
Maybe, maybe not. I played assassins creed during the beta and they are
actually giving me a full copy of the game soon so I don't see why they
wouldn't be able to give users full copies to the games they bought if they
ever shut it down.

~~~
bilbo0s
If that's not an explicit commitment in their terms and conditions though,
yeah, it'll be a pretty hard sell. (At least for me anyway. I take my gaming
seriously.)

Google has an uncomfortable tendency to cancel projects.

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robot
Probably Google's version of Twitch?

~~~
bllguo
Actually they've had youtube gaming for some time now. Pretty sure Twitch is
far far ahead but still, they have their version already

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forgot-my-pw
> Pretty sure Twitch is far far ahead

Stream quality is still far better with Youtube, especially outside North
America. Twitch has better community and highlight clip feature.

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intended
Will anyone trust google after the number of projects they’ve dropped?

~~~
crazygringo
Will people ever stop making this comment on HN?

It's just not adding anything to the conversation anymore. I've seen it 50
times across the past 50 announcements of even the smallest thing Google
launches.

Reader was discontinued five and a half years ago. Code search six years ago.
Wave seven years ago. Plus wasn't discontinued, it just pivoted to paid G
Suite-only. Sometimes well-intentioned products just don't make money. Let's
move on.

~~~
intended
I’d say, That’s a bit hyperbolic. I don’t think google has launched 50 things
in the past half year, and that’s the time it’s taken me to shift positions
and begin to consider this question.

It’s for Games and gamers. Gamers, especially PC gamers are a very different
market than your general genial HN-going techie or casual content consumer.
For them a well intentioned product which may “disappear” is something they
have increasingly had enough of. Further google doesn’t have the brand reach
of Sony, MSFT, valve, Nintendo etc.

If it is a concern I have, then it’s a concern other gamers will have.

while I admit it’s easy to dismiss my 1 line comment as matching some sort of
pattern, it wasn’t written with that history in mind. It was written
spontaneously and without an agenda.

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blakesterz
Headline from February of 2021

"Google Announces The End Of Project Stream"

I can't help but think there's a good number of people who just won't use this
because it's Google and they will assume it'll be gone in a year or two. I
guess the same goes for game developers as well.

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gipp
I think a lot of people _really_ overestimate how pervasive this view is
outside of this website.

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intrasight
And inside this web site. Who cares who's streaming your games? What matters
is that it works and that the price is reasonable. It's good to have options.

