Google and Snapchat Among Tech Companies Launching New Gaming Platforms

Published on March 24, 2019

As Disney migrates into the streaming world, companies like Snapchat and Google are looking at other ways to monetize on the web. Google announced this month that it has plans to create its own streaming service for gaming. Similarly, Snapchat has also hinted at creating its own platform for the same purpose. Companies like Facebook have launched similar services. The programs allow users to play externally created games from within the apps.

Google

Google recently unveiled its new cloud-based gaming platform that will be released at some point this year. During a press event, Google CEO Sundar Pichai began discussing the new platform by bringing up his own video gaming habits. The announcement was made at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this week. The tech CEO revealed that he plays quite a bit of FIFA. Pichai wants to create a way for Google users to access those games within a cloud-based service.

The new Google service will be called Stadia. Google hasn’t released much information about the product, only what it does and that we can expect it sometime this year. Users will supposedly be able to stream games onto their pixel devices or through a Chromecast device onto a TV. Stadia will open up the gaming universe by giving users access instantaneously.

Unlike products like EA’s Origin, a cloud-based gaming platform that allows users to purchase games straight from the source and download them in just a few minutes, Stadia won’t require any downloading at all. News like this is great for computer gamers. The likes of whom won’t want to sacrifice precious disk space in the name of a new video game.

Snapchat

Meanwhile, in Santa Monica, Snap has been highly secretive of its latest project. Officially titled “Project Cognac,” the app developer is supposedly set to release its own gaming platform sometime next month. Snap will be officially discussing the project at a conference on April 4th. In the race to create the first in-app gaming platform, though, Facebook won. The company released its own gaming tab earlier this year. The tab allows Facebook users to play externally created games within the Facebook app and website.

A Snapchat version of the Facebook gaming app will supposedly look similar in that way. App users will be able to play games within the app that are made from external developers. This will connect Snap users to new games without having to go through a game developer. It will also give Snap users a way to play games without having to purchase or download them.

New Beginnings

It’s been a hard couple of years for Snap and Snapchat, as the company has struggled to stay afloat since apps like Instagram and Facebook unveiled features that made Snapchat virtually obsolete. That, coupled with a few bad publicity stunts, meant that Snap would have to come up with some new ideas quickly before suffering permanent damage.

The company shifted its focus from being a social platform to a multimedia platform. Media websites suddenly had space within the app to create and share content with a young audience, and companies utilized Snap’s AR technology to market new products like makeup, movies, and other new products. Now, with a gaming section of the app, Snap could bring itself back from a slow death.

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Julia Sachs is a former Managing Editor at Grit Daily. She covers technology, social media and disinformation. She is based in Utah and before the pandemic she liked to travel.

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