Google Stadia: Five things you need to know

All you gamers out there might be pretty excited by the news that Google has unveiled a new digital gaming platform called Stadia.

Say goodbye to the traditional method of downloading games or buying a disc, Stadia says it will allow you to stream better-than-console-quality games, offering instant access to play.

Here are the top five things you need to know.

1. Linked with YouTube

You may be one of the hundreds of thousands of people who watch gaming videos on YouTube.

If so, Google's plans might sound pretty ideal for you as they are planning to link YouTube up with Stadia.

The idea is that someone viewing a video on YouTube could press a "play on Stadia" button and begin playing the title within seconds.

Stadia users will also be able to highlight, capture, and share gameplay straight to YouTube.

Google is also using something called State Share to let players easily share moments, so you can even share an exact link to a part of a game, changing the way games are typically shared.

2. A special new controller

The Stadia controller comes with a YouTube sharing button and another for Google Assistant.

It looks like a cross between an Xbox and PS4 controller, but the Stadia version has a button for capturing and sharing gaming directly to YouTube.

It will work by connecting directly through Wi-Fi to link it to a game session in the cloud.

The cost of the controller or the service has not yet been announced.

3. Streaming

At launch, games will be streamable across laptops, desktops, TVs, tablets, and phones.

Gameplay can move across those devices, from a phone to a tablet and then to a TV, all using Google-powered devices.

Google are attempting to get rid of the problem of lag, which is the delay between a player performing an action, and the game reacting to that move.

And it's going to be powerful. The company has promised the service will offer games at 4K resolution, at 60 frames per second (fps) - and up to 8K, 120 fps in future. Which basically means, it will be extremely good quality.

Today's most advanced consoles, the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro, can support 4K and 60 fps simultaneously, but only on a limited number of games.

However, some game developers have expressed some caution with the plans.

And there's also competition from Microsoft, Sony and Amazon as they are already using streaming services or have plans in development.

Only time will tell if Stadia will actually mean the end of lag time and if it will be enough to challenge the big players in gaming.

4. What games will it have?

So far we don't know if Google plans to mainly offer games that already exist on other platforms or focus on promoting it's own specially designed games.

The games that have been used in testing and announced on launch are ones that you can already play elsewhere, but some experts think Google will need to get exclusive games you can only play on Stadia to really make an impact and get people to switch away from consoles.

We also don't know yet how much it will cost - if anything. There's no subscription cost for YouTube or Google but that won't necessarily be the case for Stadia.

5. When is it coming?

Stadia is launching this year in the US, UK, Canada and Europe.

It will be arriving to the UK on 19 November 2019.

Do you think this is the end of X-Box or PlayStation? Tell us in the comments below.