Is video game streaming going to change the industry as we know it? On Kotaku Splitscreen we discuss that question and much more. Kirk was on jury duty last week, so Maddy and I recorded and edited the show all by ourselves like grown adults. First we talk about Bloodborne, Danganronpa, beloved Nintendo of America president Reggie
Fils-Aime retiring,
and the rumors of a Nintendo-Xbox love affair. We take some listener questions on Anthem and games as a service (35:10). Then it’s time for off-topic talk (52:40) on X2 and Russian Doll as well as my surprise Music Pick Of The Week. It’s a good one.
Listen here: https://player.megaphone.fm/PPY8743190146 Get the MP3 here, or read an excerpt: Jason: …There’s definitely something to the idea that [Microsoft and Nintendo] are working together.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1833037905","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"culture","SECTION":"splitscreen","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"splitscreen","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); Maddy: They’re buddies now—what is going on? The console wars are over! There’s some sort of truce happening. I don’t know, it’s messed up now. Whole new world. Jason: I think the part of this equation maybe people aren’t paying enough attention to but
rummy best will be soon is streaming and what that will do to games, because that’s going to change everything. I’m incredibly excited to see what Google shows at GDC.
Maddy: We’re gonna be there! We’re gonna see it. Jason: Yep, you and I will be there, and hopefully we’ll get to talk to some folks over there. They announced that they’re doing this big GDC keynote. All shall be revealed, that’s their big thing.I had reported in the past that they have this streaming thing, they have some hardware—I don’t know if the hardware’s going to be there; I’d heard rumblings that it might not be—but the streaming platform, if it works as advertised, I think that could change everything we know about the way video games are made and played.
Maddy: People have said this about streaming and games for a while, though. Jason: But there hasn’t been a company on the level of Google coming in and saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring this to mass market, make it so everyone, no matter what equipment they have, can pick up their phone, PC, whatever, and open up a Google Chrome tab and play Assassin’s Creed on it.’ Maddy: That sounds too good to be true to me, but hey. Jason: Did you try the Project Stream beta test at all? Maddy: Nope, did you try it? Was it
rummy golds awesome? Jason: Yeah! Maddy: Then I’m no longer skeptical. I’m totally bought in. I’m ready to play Assassin’s Creed in Firefox or whatever.
Jason: Well no, not Firefox. Never Firefox. Maddy: Of course not! Chrome. Google Chrome. Jason: There’s a tiny bit of
rummy mars latency that I noticed, and I was on a high-speed internet connection. Obviously this isn’t going to work if you’re on bad internet or your bandwidth is capped. But when I played it, it ran pretty smoothly. It was at 30 frames per second, not 60, but it looked good. I could play the game. And I was baffled by the fact that I was sitting in the office on my Macbook playing this in a Google Chrome tab—it was just mindblowing. So I’m excited to see what they have to show, and what their capabilities are, and what they can actually do with this thing. I know they’ve been funding games, so maybe
we’ll see some of those at their presentation. Maddy: It’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to be there. For much more, listen to the entire episode. As always, you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and Google Play to get every episode as it happens. Leave us a review if you like what you hear, and reach us at [email protected] with any and all questions, requests, and suggestions.