It seems Google is testing an app that allows you to run games from cloud streaming services (such as Google Stadia) with one click in the search results.
As he noted Bryant Chapel (by Borderland), if you are looking for a game available on the streaming service you will see a small Play button – click it and the title will run on the appropriate cloud gaming platform, right in your browser.
Google does something similar with Movies and TV Shows in Search: If there’s a match on a streaming platform (like Netflix or Disney Plus), links to launch the content will appear next to the regular list of results.
Looks like Google Search has a new update for cloud gaming platforms !!! When searching for a game, players can now launch the game directly from the search results using @GoogleStadia. pic.twitter.com/xblOsBpF6OAugust 11, 2022
Testing, testing
At the time of writing, Google has not officially commented on this process, so it is likely still in the testing phase and may not be available to everyone. It appears to be available on both the desktop and mobile versions of the Google homepage for those who have it.
As you might expect, matches are not only shown for Google Stadia. The Play button also appears when the games are running Amazon Luna, Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox cloud games – showing that perhaps cloud gaming is more advanced, with more platforms where people log in than you could imagine.
Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) games can now also be launched directly from the Google search results page. pic.twitter.com/LeYbBk7SFHAugust 11, 2022
Based on what people have been able to test so far, it’s not quite a seamless experience across all games on all streaming platforms (if you’re not logged in properly or for games like XBox Cloud Gaming you’ll need to click a few prompts or sign in to services), but this is to be expected for a new feature – and it will undoubtedly improve over time.
Analysis: Gaming Cloud is coming
Cloud gaming has yet to take off properly – you still need a very fast, low-latency broadband connection to really take advantage of it – but it’s not hard to see the appeal of streaming games over the Internet, such as movies or music.
For starters, you don’t need to buy any additional hardware, and the hardware you run your games on is always up-to-date.
Activation Cyberpunk 2077 – sort of a clutter on every platform except cloud services as the updates were fast and hassle free and the developers tried to fix bugs as quickly as possible – showed the benefits of having a hardware and software foundation that can be constantly improved.
Plus there’s the advantage of being able to play anywhere. You can’t drag PlayStation 5 to the beach, but you can play online games through a browser on your tablet – assuming of course your vacation spot has a very strong Wi-Fi network.
Over time, these cloud gaming services will become more refined and better at delivering games over the Internet, and connection speeds (both over Wi-Fi and cellular networks) will inevitably improve as well.
Soon, searching for a game and launching it directly from Google’s results page could become very common.