Google Stadia "Complementary" To PCs And Consoles, Says Ubisoft CEO

Google announced its cloud gaming platform, Stadia with an in-depth presentation detailing the tech and its features. The idea promises to open up high-fidelity gaming to everyone regardless of whether they can afford a gaming PC or console. Still, some areas of the US have low broadband penetration, which is why Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot says the platform is likely to be used alongside consoles and PCs, not as an outright replacement--at least for the time being.

"You have to look at Stadia as complementary," Guillemot told GameSpot during an interview at GDC. "If you get internet you play on the machine that gives you a chance to experience your game. What's good in this industry, either you play on the mobile or you play on PC, and now it's starting to be the same game. I think this is a way to play differently depending on where you are as well."

He said Ubisoft recognizes that quality internet isn't available everywhere, but that the studio will be able to "scale the game to the quality of the internet experience." He also suggested that 5G, the next generation of cellular communications tech, could be a big boon and that cities will have to compete with each other for it.

"I think 5G has to come fast, but what we see is there will be lots of possibilities to use it," he said. "So if cities are really putting 5G, the oldest cities will have to react quite fast if they want keep all the people they have in cities. So this, I think, is going to push 5G a lot."

Ubisoft partnered with Google last year for Project Stream, a practical test of the tech used ultimately used in Stadia. That allowed testers to play Assassin's Creed Odyssey for free, but they needed a 25 Mbps connection. That benchmark may give us an idea of what to expect for optimum performance when Stadia launches later this year. Guillemot also shared thoughts on how Ubisoft could price its games for Stadia.

To catch up on the news surrounding Google's cloud platform, read all we know about Stadia. Plus check out why cloud gaming is the next big thing, which companies are investing in cloud tech.