Just a few days after Google Stadia announced its upcoming cloud gaming service, Walmart may be willing to also join the cloud gaming competition.
On Monday, Google introduced Stadia, a cloud streaming service that supports a 4K resolution in video games. Headed by the company's very own game studio, Stadia will be fully integrated with YouTube, which already boasts 2 billion logged-in users.
According to reports, Walmart has been discussing its game streaming service with developers and publishers, probably to follow Google's footsteps. Speaking with anonymous sources, US Gamer reports that Walmart could be planning a 2019 launch given the conference meetings it has held recently.
Can Walmart Pull Through?
In order for a cloud gaming platform to work, a company would need a vast network of data centers to store such huge information. Google already has enough infrastructure for the task of handling Google Stadia gaming platform. In fact, it has been developing more than 7,500 edge node locations across the world, each of which is capable of serving up games from the cloud.
Walmart does have six large server farms that it can use for the service, but would that be enough? Interestingly, the company has already closed deals with Microsoft, allowing it to use Azure and other Microsoft 365 products in various projects.
Still, the company should expand and improve its infrastructure if it aims to launch its own gaming service.
A Little Preoccupied
While a surprise entrance at the game streaming service competition is not impossible, Walmart may need to identify its current priorities. Last year, the company made an aggressive push to start its own video streaming service to rival industry leaders such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
However, those plans did not materialize, and in January, the company officially abandoned its video streaming dreams, at least for the meantime.
In case Walmart does succeed in making the preparation and eventually launching its own service similar to the Google Stadia, it will face tough competition. The likes of Nvidia, Sony, Microsoft, and Amazon are moving in that direction, too.
