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Forbes
Forbes
Technology
Kris Holt, Contributor

Google Unveils Its B2B Cloud Gaming Platform Built With Stadia Tech

Google Stadia controller and Chromecast Ultra device. Future Publishing via Getty Images

Google had plenty of news about Stadia, the consumer-facing aspect of its cloud gaming products, at its Google for Games Developer Summit. On the flip side of that is the white-label platform Google’s been working on: a way for other companies to license the game streaming tech that powers Stadia.

Previously, that B2B offering was believed to be known as Google Stream. Google has now confirmed more details about the offering, including its name.

It's now called Immersive Stream for Games (which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue as smoothly as Google Stream). The Stadia team built it with the help of the folks at Google Cloud. The company says the service will allow companies to run their own game trials, let users play full games, offer subscription bundles or have full storefronts.

In other words, publishers might be able to run their own versions of Stadia with their own libraries of games, branding and custom user interface.

“The Google for Games Developer Summit is designed to support studios of every size, with tools and innovations from teams across Google. The core features we’re talking about today are benefitting both the development journey and player experience for Immersive Stream for Games customers, including Stadia,” Stadia’s head of product Dov Zimring said in a statement.

“In partnership with Google Cloud, we’re working to build out the underlying cloud gaming technology that powers both Stadia and our customers' offerings via Immersive Stream for Games. A rising tide for cloud gaming lifts Immersive Stream for Games as well as Stadia, and we’re excited for what’s to come in 2022 and beyond.”

We've seen a version of Immersive Stream for Games in action. Last year, Google teamed up with AT&T to offer people a way to play Batman: Arkham Knight for free via the cloud. Thousands of folks took advantage of the offer.

AT&T plans to offer its customers access to another game soon with the help of Immersive Stream for Games. While that version of Batman: Arkham Knight was only available on desktop and laptop web browsers, the next game will run on mobile devices too. If all goes well, it could be a decent way for AT&T to show off what its 5G network can do.

Immersive Stream for Games will include other features Google revealed for Stadia today, including a way to offer free trials of full games and a project aimed at making it easier to port games so they run on Stadia tech, as well as analytics. Developers and publishers can send Google an inquiry for more details.

The update follows a report from February which suggested Google shifted resources away from Stadia to focus on the B2B cloud gaming service. According to Insider, Bungie (which is in the process of being acquired by Sony) and Capcom were interested in using Google’s tech to power their own cloud gaming services.

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