Earlier this week, Google surprised everyone by announcing that it would be holding a press event at the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. The company failed to provide any additional details, such as what might be covered at the briefing, but a new report from 9to5Google suggests that we could get our first look at the mysterious Project Yeti hardware, which we first heard about almost exactly a year ago.
A source familiar with the matter tells 9to5Google that Google will introduce both a game streaming service powered by the same technology that was demonstrated in the Project Stream private test, as well as hardware on which to run the service — the hardware that currently carries the codename Project Yeti.
According to the initial report, Project Yeti was first envisioned as a service for the Chromecast, but additional reports have pointed to an entirely new home video game console and a controller developed by Google.
Last summer, Kotaku reported “Google representatives met with several big video game companies to gauge interest in its streaming platform” at GDC 2018. The fact that Google is hosting its own event a year later might suggest that some of those studios have signed on to bring their games to the streaming service.
Finally, while the 9to5Google report didn’t hint at a potential release date or beta launch for Project Yeti, the roadmap for the service was reportedly “being locked down” as of the end of last year. And beyond just streaming games over the internet, the service is also said to include voice chat. Providing the report is correct, we’ll learn a whole lot more during Google’s press event at GDC 2019 on March 19th at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.
