It seems that a lot of companies are jumping on the game streaming service bandwagon, even those that you may not immediately associate with the gaming industry. It seems that Verizon is the latest to get on board, with its own cloud-based game streaming service apparently now undergoing selective alpha testing.
According to a recent report from The Verge, Verizon’s game streaming service—imaginatively titled Verizon Gaming—is already operating on the Nvidia Shield set-top box and looks to be heading to Android smartphones at some point in the future. Xbox One controllers can be paired to use with the service.
A number of AAA games are shown in the screenshots, but with titles such as Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Battlefield V, and Destiny 2 in the lineup. Though, as the Verge was quick to point out, these titles seem far too good to be true and are most likely placeholders as Verizon is currently focusing on performance rather than content, at this early stage. It’s unclear what the requirements are to be selected for the alpha testing phase but it seems that the current phase is due to finish at the end of January.
With game prices so high, it’s inevitable that game streaming services have become more popular, allowing players to jump straight into a variety of games without the need to pay out for each one and giving the ability to play across many platforms. PlayStation Now is probably the most well-known, though others such as Google and Amazon have followed suit, with the latter going so far as to announce a new MMO entitled New World last year, along with a handful of screenshots.
Verizon is better placed than most to join the cloud-based game streaming market, perhaps adding some incentive to its already well-established internet and mobile data services.
