Google's Project Stream to Boost Presence in Gaming Industry
Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google recently announced its gaming initiative called Project Stream in an effort to bolster presence in the gaming industry.
The new project which is currently in its beta stage will offer subscription-based streaming service for AAA video games which usually includes graphically-rich content.
The service will enable users to play these games on their desktops or laptops just by signing into their Google accounts. It will only require Google Chrome and a reliable Internet connection.
In fact, the company is likely to gain further traction in the streaming world with its new project.
Video Game Market Holds Promise
Per a report from Newzoo, the consumer spending in the global games market is expected to witness a CAGR of 10.3% between 2017 and 2021 to hit $180.1 billion by 2021. Further, this rapidly growing market is projected to reach $138 billion in 2018.
Google is well poised to achieve success in its new project with gaming initiatives and increasing consumer spending on video games globally.
Additionally, the company has teamed up with video game publisher UbiSoft Entertainment to stream Assassin’s Creed Odyssey via Chrome. Currently, Project Stream will allow selected players to play the game and test the service at free of cost.
Further, Google is aggressively looking into deals with game developers to bring interesting games to its platform. Moreover, it has appointed the former Playstation and Xbox executive Phil Harrison as Vice President.
All these endeavors are likely to add efficiency to Project Stream which is likely to help the company in reaping benefits from this growing market.
Coming to the price performance, shares of Alphabet have returned 15% on a year-to-date basis against the industry’s decline of 7.6%.
Strengthening Competition
With the latest move, Google is likely to gain competitive edge against the likes of Microsoft MSFT, Sony SNE, Nintendo and Amazon AMZN as well.
All these companies are also putting in strong efforts to gain traction in the video game streaming space.
Microsoft which owns the huge video gaming brand, Xbox, is currently working on Project Scarlett in an attempt to develop a streaming box which will offer streaming services for video games on Xbox console with the support of its cloud platform, Azure.
Further, Sony has its cloud gaming subscription service namely PlayStation Now which offers streaming of a huge library of video games on PlayStation 4 and PC as well.
Meanwhile, Amazon owns huge game portfolio and offers video game streaming services via its Twitch platform.
Additionally, Nintendo has also partnered with UbiSoft to stream Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on Nintendo Switch in Japan.
Nevertheless, Google’s Project Stream and new video game streaming services is likely to bring social benefits. Notably, the users will not be required to purchase any costly game consoles or gaming PC to play these video games.
Growth in video games is likely to keep accelerating over time and consequently the search giant is likely to gain traction in gaming space driven by its robust Chrome and gamer-friendly services.
Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM)
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