In short: Google announced today that it is launching Project Stream which is a partnership with Ubisoft where Google will be streaming it’s newest game (still unreleased) Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through the Chrome browser. This is part of Google taking streaming to the next level, and being able to stream a full game – especially one like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – is a pretty big deal. Google says that beginning October 5, a limited number of people will be able to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at no charge, during the testing phase of Project Stream. As expected, being able to stream a game that uses so many high-quality graphics, and keeping the interaction between the controller and the browser at instant, created some challenges for Google. Obviously, when you are streaming a 4K video, many are okay with a few seconds of buffering at the beginning, but in gaming, that could result in your character dying.
Background: Google has been working on doing better streaming through the Chrome browser for a few years now. Not only is it looking to make it better for streaming video, but also to stream apps and games. Google has in the past, worked with Adobe to stream Photoshop and Lightroom onto Chromebooks, which don’t have the traditional apps included. But streaming a game like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through the browser is a much more difficult task to accomplish.
Impact: The test that begins later this week is definitely a small one, and this is the first time that Google has tested out Project Stream (outside of a few internal tests), so it’s not a huge surprise that this is a pretty small test. It should be an interesting test, especially for those that were wanting to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey anyways. Google does definitely want plenty of feedback from those that are testing out Project Stream, so it can improve the streaming of this game. If you want to apply to test out Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you can sign up through the link below.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Sign Up