Stadia：遊戲雲起來 谷歌進軍遊戲流媒體領域

在3月19日舉行的遊戲開發者大會上，谷歌隆重進軍遊戲流媒體領域。這家搜索巨頭在舊金山舉行的大會上宣布了流媒體遊戲服務Stadia。展示了對遊戲未來的大膽設想——基於雲端伺服器的遊戲平台。

通過Stadia，玩家可以在任何手機、平板、電腦、電視等螢幕上玩任何遊戲，不用買遊戲光碟，不用下載遊戲程序，所有的工作都在一個離線數據中心完成。“遊戲的未來不是一個封閉盒子，”谷歌說，“而是一個地方。”就像人類幾百年來建造體育場館一樣，谷歌相信它正在建造一個虛擬的遊戲體育場。玩家不需要昂貴的遊戲PC或專用遊戲機，相反，只需要訪問谷歌的瀏覽器，就可以在手機、平板電腦、個人電腦或電視上即時玩遊戲。對於遊戲的發展方向，這是一個大膽的設想，谷歌希望它的視距雲流媒體服務將使其成為現實。

外媒評價，這並不是第一個旨在顛覆該行業的流媒體服務，但它是最有說服力的服務之一。然而，Stadia推出後面臨的一個主要的問題將是，通過該服務，玩家究竟能夠玩到些什麽遊戲？

在遊戲開發者大會上，谷歌僅提及了三款遊戲將確認在Stadia上線。首先是《刺客教條奧德賽》，在大會的演示環節，谷歌正是使用了這款遊戲來展示這項新技術：演示者從手機轉向電視，再轉向筆電電腦和個人電腦來玩同一款遊戲。

《毀滅戰士：永恆》，這款遊戲的上線可以回答玩家們對Stadia的一些疑問。

作為一款閃電射擊遊戲，即使是很小的輸入延遲也會破壞遊戲進程，影響玩家體驗。不過外媒評價，在大會上進行演示並不能完全說明Stadia平台的處理速率，真正的考驗將是，當玩家在遠離數據中心、連接速度較慢的農村地區使用時，是否還能保持同樣的遊戲體驗。谷歌證實，Q-Games將圍繞“state share”功能開發一款遊戲，這款遊戲將允許你在觀看Youtube視頻或Youtube流媒體直播的同時玩遊戲。

谷歌Stadia服務的核心是YouTube和Chrome瀏覽器。除了上文介紹的在觀看Youtube視頻或Youtube直播的同時玩遊戲外，Chrome作為谷歌的主流網絡瀏覽器也扮演著重要角色。Stadia最初只能通過Chrome、Chromecast和Android設備使用。谷歌承諾未來會有更多的瀏覽器支持使用，但目前還不清楚何時會推出。另外一點值得注意的是，在大會上谷歌只在自己的設備上演示了這項服務，沒有提到通過專用應用程序或蘋果的Safari移動瀏覽器支持iOS系統使用這項服務。

除了谷歌，索尼、微軟、亞馬遜都加入了這場雲遊戲戰爭。索尼現在擁有了遊戲和PlayStation，微軟可以利用其Azure數據中心和Xbox Game Pass來支持xCloud，亞馬遜可以憑借其雲計算主導地位Prime和廣受歡迎的Twitch服務來吸引玩家。作為搜索引擎巨頭，谷歌也有其自身競爭優勢，但看起來這場雲遊戲戰爭才剛剛開始。

Google Stadia：“A game platform for everyone”that could shake up the industry

Yesterday，Google made its grand entrance into the world of game streaming. The search giant announced Stadia at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco，showing off a bold vision for a gaming future where anyone could play any game on any screen，with all the hard processing work done at an off-site data center.

“The future of gaming is not a box，”according to Google.“It’s a place.”Just like how humans have built stadiums for sports over hundreds of years，Google believes it’s building a virtual stadium，aptly dubbed Stadia，for the future of games to be played anywhere. You won’t need an expensive gaming PC or a dedicated game console. Instead，you’ll just need access to Google’s Chrome browser to instantly play games on a phone，tablet，PC，or TV. It’s a bold vision for where gaming is heading，and Google hopes its Stadia cloud streaming service will make it a reality.

Google may have just unveiled the future of gaming at the Game Developers Conference (GDC)，but it’s a future the company has left us knowing very little about.

It’s not the first streaming service that’s been meant to disrupt the industry，but it is one of the most convincing. When it launches in 2019，however，a major question will be what games we’ll be able to play on it. Google was pretty light on those particular specifics for this presentation， but we do know three titles.

The first one is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It was the test case for Project Stream，and people have already played a remote version of this game in a web browser. Google used Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to show off the new tech during the presentation as a demonstrator moved from phone to TV to laptop and PC playing the same game session.

Doom Eternal：This was meant to answer some of people’s doubts about Stadia. Where Odyssey is a relatively forgiving title that can handle a little latency without disrupting the experience，Doom Eternal is set to be a lighting quick twitch shooter where even a tiny bit of input lag could absolutely wreck a play session. Announcing Doom Eternal was Google’s way of saying that they were aware of these concerns and wanted to meet them.

The game will be playable at the convention，but that isn’t a huge test，to be honest. The real test will be when this hits someone living out in a rural area，far away from a data center and with a slow connection.

Something from Q-Games：Google confirmed that Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games would be building a game around the “state share”feature that will allow you to instantly start playing a game at the same moment as a Youtube video or a live Youtube stream.

At the heart of Google’s Stadia cloud streaming service are YouTube and Chrome.Chrome also plays a big role as Google’s dominant web browser. Stadia will only be available through Chrome，Chromecast，and on Android devices initially. Google has promised more browsers in the future，but it’s not clear when this will arrive.Google only demonstrated the service on its own devices，and there was no mention of iOS support through a dedicated app or Apple’s Safari mobile browser.

Sony，Microsoft，Amazon，and Google will be the key players in any cloud gaming war. Sony has the games and PlayStation Now，Microsoft can leverage its Azure data centers and Xbox Game Pass for xCloud，and Amazon can lean on its cloud dominance，Prime，and its massively popular Twitch service to entice gamers. Google has some fierce competition，but it looks like this cloud gaming war is just getting started.

南都記者 張沛 綜合整理自 Forbes The Verge Financial Times