[Update #2]: Google is shutting down Stadia and issuing refunds for all purchases.

[Update]: Google has revealed some new details, as well as games that are partnering with them, over at the official website.

After spending quite a bit of time testing the concept with Assassin's Creed Odyssey under the code name "Project Stream", Google has now finally announced their new gaming focused platform - Stadia. As you might imagine from the title alone, Stadia will not be a physical box you put under your television, but rather an online platform that will allow you to stream games to whichever device you want.

The details are still few and far between as Google is planning to have a more elaborate reveal in the future, but from what I can tell you so far Stadia will be capable of playing games at a 4K resolution and 60FPS, with the possibility to upgrade to 8K at some point in the future. Naturally, the higher you go in quality, the better Internet connection you will require in order to actually play the game without any major issues.

While I am definitely not the target audience for this given that input delay would drive me insane within hours, I am definitely curious to see how Stadia will end up turning out. Even if it doesn't end up being viable for fast-paced games like shooters or fighting games, it would still be an excellent way of playing major strategy games or RPGs on whatever device you might currently have on hand. This goes doubly so when you consider you won't have to ever worry about keeping track of your save files or any sort of performance issues, provided your Internet is stable anyway.

I won't delve into too much speculation as Google hasn't revealed anything major just yet, but I will say that Stadia is well worth keeping an eye on. Google certainly has the infrastructure to make this sort of gaming platform work, so if there is a chance streaming games can become more than a simple gimmick, Stadia would be a pretty good candidate.

Whether that will actually be the case, I suppose only time will tell.