Google LLC may be the next company looking to fill the Netflix-shaped hole in the video game industry. The Information reported today that Google has been working on a subscription-based game streaming service that could deliver games to Chromecast or possibly a future Google-made gaming console.

Google’s project, which is codenamed “Yeti,” would reportedly be a games-as-a-service platform similar to Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Now or Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce Now. Yeti would host its games on the cloud, allowing users to instantly stream all of the available titles rather than having to download and install them individually.

Cloud streaming not only gives users a faster and more convenient way to play new games, but it also lets them try out multiple games at a time without having to pay full price for each title. This is handy for any game, but it could be especially valuable for the triple-A titles that can cost as much as $60 per game. Streaming also reduces the hardware required to run the games, since most of the heavy lifting is done by the server rather than the user’s system.

Although game streaming has many advantages over downloads or physical games, it also has a few limitations. Games stream significantly more data than most other types of multimedia, which means that they also require much faster internet speeds. To cope with this, many platforms run the games at lower video resolutions, frame rates and stereo quality than they would have on a dedicated system. Cloud games also have limited support for add-ons and user-created content, and some may have in-game stores or other features that are disabled.

Of course, Google certainly has more cloud resources at its disposal than most companies, and it has made some progress in reducing latency and speeding up its platform. Google has also been developing machine learning tools that can transfer high-quality images while using less data, and the company may try to do something similar with games.

Even if Google solves the limitations of game streaming, the model still has one major drawback: The game selection usually sucks. Much like Netflix or Amazon Instant Video, game streaming libraries rarely offer titles from the big megahit franchises, and even the ones they do offer tend to be several years old. For example, the newest game currently showcased in the list of “Blockbusters” available on PlayStation Now is “Bioshock Infinite,” which was released nearly five years ago.

According to The Information, Google has discussed Yeti with a number of game studios, but there are no details on what sorts of games the company might offer on its platform. It is also unclear if Google has any interest in developing Yeti-exclusive games to draw people to the service.

Photo: Google