Google's new project will let users stream games via Chrome

Tech giant Google has taken the wraps off Project Stream, a new video-game streaming service designed to enable users to play high-end PC and console games via its web browser Chrome.

In a blog post, Google said it had partnered with Ubisoft to stream the game publisher’s soon-to-be released title, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

Starting Friday, a limited number of participants will get to play the latest version of the game for the duration of the ‘Project Stream test’.

The eligibility requirements include an internet connection that is able to handle 25 megabits per second. The person must also be a resident of the US and at least 17 years of age, apart from possessing both a Ubisoft and a Google account.

Currently, most games require users to download large files onto their hard drives. Gaming giants like Microsoft have said previously that streaming will be the future of gaming.

"The idea of streaming such graphically-rich content that requires near-instant interaction between the game controller and the graphics on the screen poses a number of challenges," Google product manager Catherine Hsiao wrote in the blog post.

She said that streaming high-quality games requires latency measured in milliseconds, with no graphic degradation.

According to the blog, the technology and creativity behind these video games covers details and life-like movement of the characters from skin, clothing, and hair, to the massive scale of the world in which the game unfolds, down to every last blade of grass.

Reports earlier this year suggested that Google may also be building its own video game console. Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox are currently the dominant players in this segment.