Report: Google is experimenting with instant games on YouTube
Google might be looking at YouTube as its next platform for pushing into the video game market. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the former shepherd of Stadia is experimenting with a feature called "Playables" that will be available on YouTube via a web browser or mobile app.
The platform is currently being tested with casual games like Stack Bounce, a riff on the classic game Brick Breaker.
The news comes five months after the demise of Google Stadia, the company's previous push into game platform stewardship.
Then-vice president of Stadia Phil Harrison said that the platform "failed to gain traction" with users, though developers who shipped games on the platform expressed praise for the company's approach to distributing revenue from streamed titles.
Shortly after announcing the shutdown of Stadia, Google signaled its continued interest in investing in games streamed over the cloud, unveiling a trio of Chromebooks optimized for platforms like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now.
Google's pivot in the video game market is interesting because it already has a division dedicated to quick-to-play instant games: the HTML5 platform Gamesnacks.
Gamesnacks is currently nestled in Google's advertising division, so it's unclear if any tech or employees from that side of the company are involved in the Playables push. But there is a relevant market overlap: both Gamesnacks and Playables are platforms built on getting players into quick, casual game matches with the push of a button.
The contrasts between the two platforms become an interesting set of comparisons if you look at the business case for Playables. Gamesnacks' growth in countries like Brazil, India, and China owes a lot to two factors: the rise of
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