Google is Allegedly Working on ‘Yeti’, a Video Game Subscription Streaming Service

BY Evan Selleck

Published 7 Feb 2018

Google has Android TV in its efforts to take over the living room, as well as its lineup of Google Home speakers, but there is still room to expand.

Video games are a huge market, worth upwards of $109 billion, and many see it as one way to capture the living room and household. Google apparently agrees, if a new report from The Information is any indicator. According to the publication, based on conversations with anonymous sources, Google is currently hard at work on a video game subscription streaming service called “Yeti”.

With it, customers would pay an unknown amount of money to stream video games to their TV. The technology would either work through Chromecast, or by way of a Google-made console that the company is currently working on. As it stands right now, Google has reportedly spoken with a variety of video game developers, but it is unknown how far along those conversations are, or what Google is specifically looking for.

“Google may be about to take its most serious steps to get into the videogame business. The company is developing a subscription-based game streaming service that could work either on Google’s Chromecast or possibly a Google-made console still being developed, according to people with knowledge of the project.”

By allowing customers to directly stream video games, it means they would not have to rely on discs or direct downloads. However, this is not a new venture by any means, with several different companies over the years trying this same thing — to little fanfare. Whether or not Google can make it work remains to be seen.

[via The Information]