Google’s new Stadia gaming platform is all about streamers

NelsonG · March 19, 2019

Google unveiled its new Stadia game streaming service today and while we’re still waiting to hear more details about how (and when) consumers will be able to access the service, it’s clear that Google clearly kept game streamers in mind when it designed this new service. Indeed, it’s the first modern gaming platform that was clearly designed from the ground up with game streamers in mind.

During its presentation today, Google almost spent more time talking about streamers than the games that will be available on the service. Since Google owns YouTube, that’s no surprise. But it’s worth remembering that while YouTube surely has its own dedicated streamer community, it lags well behind Amazon’s Twitch . Stadia could change that.

So here is what Google is doing for streamers: Google’s own Stadia controller will have a button that lets you stream right to YouTube (though it’s unclear if you’ll be able to bring in a feed from your webcam, too). In Youtube, streamers will be able to give watchers a direct link to the game on Stadia — and there’ll probably be some revenue share here. But the really innovative piece here is that streamers will be also able to create a queue for viewers who want to play with the streamer. And that’s to a feature called State Share, sharing clips to YouTube will also be incredibly easy.

Since all the tech is managed by Google and runs in the cloud, there’s no additional hardware or software to buy and manage for streamers.

“Stadia is focused on empowering both creators and viewers to achieve new heights by breaking barriers of content capture and creating unique ways to engage with and grow a creator’s audience,” Google’s Ryan Wyatt said. “Established creators will have new ways to engage and monetize on YouTube with Stadia’s features. And with aspiring creators, we’re going to break down the barrier of entry in capturing content by giving you the ability to highlight, live stream and capture directly from Stadia.”

The last part is important, given how it takes a bit of work to create a working streaming setup. Of course, that’ll mean you’ll see lots of low-quality stream on YouTube once Stadia goes live, but there’ll surely be some new talent that’ll be discovered this way, too.

It’s worth remembering that Stadia is a new platform — this isn’t just a way to play your existing library in the cloud. Developers will have to specifically port games to it. With that, Google is able to add these features right into Stadia, making it the first platform that is able to do so from the outset.