News The saga continues: Google is testing integrating games into Youtube again

[Krvavi Abadas]

The initiative - which Google is reportedly branding Playables - will enable users to instantly play online games via YouTube's website or via its mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Only one available title, Stack Bounce - a casual arcade game challenging players to smash horizontally stacked bricks with a ball - was highlighted in the publication's report.

The Playables project is said to be part of YouTube CEO's Neal Mohan push to find new areas of growth in the wake of declining advertising spending.

yes, really.

last time was, of course. the now infamous Stadia project.
the difference appears to be that the games are directly running in your browser rather than being in the cloud, at least the test title seems simple enough to work that way.

Stadia itself was also tested with an extremely simple game, which was made freely playable during the service's final days. maybe someone there should port it to this project, making the game readily available again?

 

[Lugia667]

yeahhhhh, this isn't going to work. How is Phil Harrison still employed?

 

[sagadego20]

sure make youtube suck even more! buncha pompous fucks

 

[EvilChameleon]

Ah Breakout, what a classic.

 

[ermitron2]

I believe it can run, but if they are going to keep the youtube model it's going to suck lol. Imagine
* Starting your game
"please wathc 10 minutes CM while game loads"
*while playing "30 seconds of commercials before loading next section"
Want to save? another unskipable commercial

 

[Tangerine_Cookie]

I'm not entirely sure what the actual point of this initiative is.

Playing games on youtube? Like, while watching videos, or as its own thing? Because the former sounds sort of useless, given if you're watching videos... you're watching videos. And the latter, how are they competing with all existing low quality web games that are already there?

 

[julian]

As somebody that used to make highly interactive YouTube videos, I am sure it will be great…for a few months. Then it will break a little. Then it will break a lot. Then they’ll be completely unplayable.

 

[Vookatos]

Exactly why I log into Youtube - to play games that are likely as good as the ones on my phone

 

[JazzPotatoes]

This is going to be big among younger demographics.

Kids already spend hours and hours watching streamers play games on YouTube. Being able to integrate the tech so you can watch a streamer playing a game, then jump directly into that game afterwards, has the potential to be huge.

 

[Tangerine_Cookie]

This is going to be big among younger demographics.

Kids already spend hours and hours watching streamers play games on YouTube. Being able to integrate the tech so you can watch a streamer playing a game, then jump directly into that game afterwards, has the potential to be huge.

This is a bit, right

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

Testing “Playables” on YouTube: We’re starting to test a new experience on YouTube called “Playables”. Playables are games that can be played directly on YouTube on both desktop and mobile devices. If you’re part of this experiment, you’ll see a section on YouTube called “Playables” that will appear alongside other content on the home feed. We’re testing this with a limited number of users to start. You can view and control your Playables history and saved game progress in YouTube History.

straight from Google's official support page.

no word on what games are included. but Stack Bounce is currently playable without needing to get in the beta test, as it's sourced from a seperate casual browser game website Google introduced in 2020. "GameSnacks"

 

[Old Sorta Fan]

Ooooh! The same boring mobile games but this time through Youtube!

That Google is so clever /s

Where is the killer app? Why should anyone pay for Google’s software solution side project when the entertainment factor just won’t be there.