Walmart Follows Google To Make Gaming Service Like Stadia

Dhir Acharya - Mar 22, 2019

Since earlier this year, Walmart has talked with game developers as well as publishers. What is it doing and what's the reason?

After Google, Walmart could also enter the game streaming industry.

In particular, the company is thinking about having its own platform for streaming video games, as reported by USgamer on Wednesday. However, it hasn’t revealed how far the platform’s development has gone to. Since earlier this year, there have been talks between Walmart and game developers as well as publishers, according to many unnamed sources that USgamer got information from.

Meanwhile, the company didn’t respond immediately to a comment request.

Perhaps, Walmart is developing its own game streaming platform because it wants to compete with Amazon. The company has been spending efforts to strengthen its digital aspect and an attempt to take on Amazon. It is also offering in-store pickup, two-day shipping service, and augmented reality scanners to help customers in comparing products.

In separate news, on Tuesday, Google revealed Stadia, its own game streaming platform, at the Game Developers Conference 2019. Previously, Google used to fail in initial Stadia work named Project Stream at that time to compete with current console giants such as Microsoft, Sony and even Twitch live streaming site.

Google reveals Stadia

But Stadia is a game-changer. According to Phil Harrison, Microsoft and Sony’s former executive who broke down the vision of Google, this vertically integrated gaming platform is expected to consolidate the whole gaming process from hosting and development to advertising and distribution. The final target is to combine two modern gaming industry’s pillars including fan-collected giants visiting Youtube to play games such as League of Legends, Apex Legends, and Fortnite or stream and game developers creating immersive digital worlds.

Stadia will not only combine many different gaming market fields but also completely replace the role of PCs and gaming consoles. The gaming service will simply run on Google Chrome using laptops, tablets, TVs, desktops, and smartphones. Stadia is expected to come in a bundle with a standalone controller, which is much cheaper than current popular consoles with a price of $400.