In addition to its already comprehensive support for movies, TV, and music, Google Search will also let you know which cloud streaming services provide a specific video game.
Google Search has served as an aggregator of streaming services around the globe for many years. To find out exactly which services a certain show is available on, use Google Search or Google TV if you wish to watch it. For instance, searching for The Simpsons indicates that the program can be purchased from numerous stores or accessed through a number of apps, such as Disney and Hulu.
Google Search recently increased this functionality by adding support for video games. Google is just concentrating on cloud gaming, though, and is not offering any links to the several console stores or to the numerous PC gaming retailers.
Given that Google has a stake in the game through Stadia and Google Clouds Immersive Stream, this makes total sense. Naturally, contrary to what you might expect, Google Search is also returning results from other sources, like Amazon Luna, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Strangely, the list of services appears to be different for desktop and mobile. While the same search on a desktop displays results for both GeForce Now and Stadia, searching for Destiny 2 on Android only returns results for Stadia.
But that doesn’t mean Stadia isn’t being given a little bit of extra attention. On mobile, the wording that indicates Trial available changes from black to green when a game offers a free trial through Stadia. Otherwise, Google Search just indicates if a game is free (such as Fortnite on Xbox or Destiny 2 on Stadia) or requires a premium subscription to stream (as is the case for games on Luna).
If it is possible, pressing the Play button on the Google Search results page immediately opens that services store in the app. While Game Pass does not appear to have link-based launching on Android today, this appears to work nicely for Stadia.
We’ve been speculating for a few months that Google was getting ready to compile services for cloud gaming along these lines. Our first indication appeared when Google started getting ready for the ChromeOS launcher to display cloud gaming options while searching. Given the cloud-ready nature of ChromeOS, it might have made sense to make this an exclusive feature, but it’s fantastic to see this information available to all users.
FTC: We employ income-generating auto affiliate connections. MORE ON CLOUD GAMING. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
