Before we set our sights on alternative cloud gaming services, it’s important that we take the time to fully appreciate what it is that Google Stadia offered and what made it truly unique.
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The Gamevice Flex rises above its own gimmicky design to become the must-have controller for mobile and cloud gamers alike.
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We’ve discussed the growing gaming phone market in-depth and how Google Stadia may affect it, but that hasn’t stopped the Nubia Red Magic 3 from being unveiled at a glitzy gaming event in China.
According to a report from Windows Central, the Xbox One will be receiving an update to gain support for Google Assistant and Alexa, in addition to its existing Cortana support.
Google’s grand social ambitions have mostly tapered down following the failure of the original Google+. The latter social network is now focused on communities, while social features exist in apps like Google Duo and Photos. However, a new report today reveals that Google is working on social games, with a launch as soon as this summer.
Fuchsia Friday is back with your fix of Fuchsia information. This week, we’re looking at how Fuchsia handles graphics differently and what that might mean for gaming and VR.
The extent of Google’s current gaming reach is mostly limited to its YouTube Gaming streaming service and of course the Play Store with Android and Daydream VR games. However, the company might have a more direct interest in the space with the hire of gaming veteran Phil Harrison.
Nvidia’s new Shield TV is one of our favorite new devices in recent memory, mainly due to its extensive capabilities as a set-top box. The main focus of the Shield, though, is gaming. Using GeForce Now and game streaming, the Shield TV is a force to be reckoned with for gaming, and it seems to only get better and better. Now, some Shield users have discovered how to pair Sony’s PlayStation controller with the Shield…
Japan is a thriving country for RPGs (Role-Play Games), but most of them unfortunately remain unaccessible to a lot people due to the language barrier. However, some hardcore enthusiasts don’t give up, and this time one of them offered a rather creative solution…
Over the past year, Google’s enterprise cloud division has been heavily competing with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud is now expanding into powering multi-player gaming experiences and worlds in a partnership with UK startup Improbable.
With new platforms that are especially suited for gaming, Google has recently launched a number of efforts to promote indie developers on the Play Store. Its latest effort is the Google Play Indie Games Festival this September in San Francisco. Developers are encouraged to submit games that will be showcased and awarded prizes at the event.
It’s 2016, billions of smartphones are in use across the globe, and traditional video game companies are only just coming around to the idea that there’s some money to be made from smartphone gaming. Nintendo only recently launched its first mobile app, and plans to release a more familiar character-based game soon. Sony, likewise is about to make another foray in to the world of smartphone-based gaming with its newly-formed corporation, ForwardWorks.
When Nintendo first announced that it would finally be launching a smartphone game, it’s safe to say, many of us children of the 90’s got a little excited. Sadly, we got excited too soon. Excitement turned to bemusement once the company revealed it would be launching a weird game called Miitomo, which wasn’t exactly a game, but rather a social network.
Following its disappointing Q4 results, Nintendo has confirmed that its second title would include a “very familiar character”, and won’t be another social network attempt. It did, however, stop short of confirming exactly which character we’re going to see.
Over the weekend, Google announced changes to Play Games permissions that are mostly meant for developers, but regular users who game on Android will also see a benefit. Players no longer need their Google accounts upgraded to Google+ to use Play Games and can now automatically be signed-in with a standard Google account.
If, like me, you grew up in the 90s there’s a very good chance you came across a certain strategy PC game called Age of Empires. In it, your mission was to explore territory, build your kingdom, defeat enemies and make allies. In a lot of ways it was similar to Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise, and it was awesome…
Ahead of the highly anticipated release of Fallout 4 on November 10th, Bethesda, the company behind the game, has released a new app called Fallout C.H.A.T. While it’s not an actual messaging app, or even an actual keyboard, it’s a neat way for fans of the popular Fallout series to communicate with one another.
Mobile gaming has come on leaps and bounds as technology advances. And while touch screen games can still be good, you still can’t beat the feel of a full-size gamepad for proper gaming experience. For Android, that means the Stratus XL. It’s the latest mobile controller by SteelSeries and offers everything a gamepad should.
Samsung showed off a new Gear VR model at the Oculus Connect event today with a friendly price tag, wider compatibility, and an upcoming ship target. The virtual reality headset continues to be powered by Oculus but it’s considerably more affordable at $99 compared to the prior $199 version. Just in time for the holiday quarter, Samsung says its redesigned Gear VR will ship in November. It also boasts wider compatibility as it will work with all 2015 Samsung phones.
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The YouTube Gaming app launched on Android about a month ago, but now we’re already hearing about a significant update that’s on the way. As was first revealed in a teardown done by Android Police earlier this month, Google has now confirmed that it is preparing to introduce Android game broadcasting straight from the app itself…
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As part of its IFA announcement this morning, Acer teased an upcoming product which could have any spec-hungry smartphone fans drooling with desire. It didn’t give all the details, but what it did share is enough to get us to stand up and pay attention.
Acer’s Predator 6 smartphone will feature a ridiculous deca-core (10 cores!) MediaTek Helio X20 with 4GB RAM and four front-facing speakers. This is designed to be a mobile gaming power-house. Its internal specs are made to handle even the most intensive gaming, while the four speakers will create an immersive experience. If that wasn’t enough, it also has a 21MP camera on the back, because why not?
No other details were shared. We don’t know pricing or availability. We don’t even know for certain if it’s going to run Android, they didn’t say. It’s safe to assume that it will be an Android device given the specifications and that the Predator 8 is launching soon, and definitely runs Android 5.1 Lollipop. We’ll keep you updated once the phone gets an official announcement with all the important details. Update: It definitely runs Android.
Image via: GearDiary on Twitter.
Good news, fans of live-streamed gaming: YouTube Gaming is now available for Android from Google Play. YouTube announced that it would be releasing a dedicated app for watching gaming-related live streams and videos hosted on the platform several months back, shortly after Amazon acquired competitor Twitch for nearly $1 billion. Downloading the app from the Play Store is limited to US and UK residents initially.
YouTube Gaming, Google’s attempt at taking on Twitch, is allegedly set to launch tomorrow, August 26, according to TechCrunch’s sources. The site will go live at gaming.youtube.com tomorrow in the US and the UK and will act as a central hub where viewers can find and watch people live streaming their own video gameplay.
Google announced that it would be getting in to gaming live-streams a couple of months back and has been working behind the scenes to get its service ready for a public rollout. Once live it will act as a direct competitor to Twitch, an Amazon service which lets gamers stream their gameplay and offer it up to viewers to watch. It’s a huge market to get in to, and one which YouTube clearly has the infrastructure to manage. Just searching through YouTube for game walkthroughs or live-streams should be enough to convince anyone that the game-streaming market is huge.
The questions is: Will YouTube compete with Amazon’s Twitch effectively? Twitch has more than 1.5 million broadcasters and amasses over 100 million visitors every month and cost Amazon nearly $1 billion in September last year. Interestingly, Google itself was an interested party and was bidding in competition with Amazon to buy Twitch last year — at times Google was even believed to have closed the deal. YouTube Gaming will be available to download on Android when it launches.
Autodesk, the company behind a variety of popular design tools, today has announced a new game engine that it says makes the process of building games considerably more seamless. The program, called Stingray, is based on the Bitsquid engine that it acquired last year, but is entirely revamped with a new, more intuitive interface.
We told you that investment bank Mesa Global accidentally let out in June that Razer had acquired flopped-Android-gaming-box maker OUYA, and today the company has made that acquisition official. Ouya’s Android-based gaming box quickly fell flat a couple years ago after receiving millions in funding through Kickstarter.
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