Google may be the next big player in gaming

Google may be making a power move in the world of gaming.

The name “Google” has become nearly ubiquitous with being online. You don’t search for something, you Google it. Gmail hosts most corporate email accounts. YouTube is the dominating platform for online video hosting. Now, the massive corporation appears set to make a serious foray into gaming.

Google is set to make an announcement at the Game Developer Conference on March 19, and many are speculating that it has to do with a new streaming service or piece of hardware developed by the tech juggernaut.

The invitation to the event reportedly only showed a light at the end of a tunnel and the phrase “gather around.”

If Google is going to make its first foray into game streaming or gaming hardware, it’ll face serious competition. Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation are leaders among competitive console gamers, and the Nintendo Switch is wildly popular as well. For PC players, Steam dominates in terms of sheer numbers and culturally, and other developers such as Epic Games and Electronic Arts have also brought their own digital storefronts to bear.

According to Jason Schreier at Kotaku, Google could be planning a new video game platform meant to rival Xbox and PlayStation. Schreier reports that Google’s plans involve a combination of a streaming platform, a form of new hardware, and incentives to bring game developers directly onto the Google platform.

There are still lingering questions that have yet to be answered about this theorized service. Will you be able to download games directly to your devices, or will there just be streaming? Will there be an app for the Xbox and PlayStation platforms, or will it come exclusively with its own hardware?

Answers will be had on March 19, but that won’t stop more questions from popping up between now and then.