What you need to know
- Google had been in talks with Peloton, Bungie, and Capcom to use Stadia technology outside of the Stadia gaming platform itself.
- The streaming game tech has been rebranded as "Google Stream" within the talks.
- Stadia priority has shifted to "proof-of-concept work for Google Stream and securing white-label deals."
Google has rebranded its Stadia game streaming technology as "Google Stream," and had been in talks with Peloton and a few gaming studios to use the tech in white-label deals.
Business Insider reports that the company had shifted its focus from negotiating third-party titles for the Stadia platform to securing white-label deals that use Stadia tech similar to the AT&T deal last October. Partners would be able to use Google's game streaming infrastructure, now known as Google Stream, to power its games without being part of the Stadia store and ecosystem.
One of the developing deals included being the gaming back-end for Peloton's fitness bikes, resulting in an announcement and closed demo for the first of the games, called Lanebreak, last year. Another deal was discussed with Capcom to run demos for new games on its website using Google Stream.
Google also pitched to Destiny studio Bungie, which was "exploring a streaming platform of its own," where Bungie would own the content while Google would support with the back-end tech. The talks reportedly reached "considerable" headway, though sources were unsure if the recent Sony acquisition of Bungie would affect plans.
The company had announced it would be investing more into the underlying Stadia platform last year after shutting down its internal game studio Stadia Games and Entertainment. Last summer, the company had reorganized the Stadia division under the "subscriptions and services section of Google's devices group" with Stadia head Phil Harrison now reporting to Google's vice president of subscription services Jason Rosenthal instead of devices and services chief Rick Osterloh. Teddy Keefe, Stadia's partnerships manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, also left Google last month and is now working at Tencent.
While Google has announced that another 100+ games are expected to come to Stadia this year, the company has shifted the priority to "proof-of-concept work for Google Stream and securing white-label deals" with one source estimating that "20% of the focus was on the consumer platform."
Play and Watch with Google TV Package
Play and Watch with Google TV Package is the latest bundle that contains the Chromecast with Google TV and a Stadia controller to easily get into playing Stadia games on the television.
