Google Games?

Posted: 11.23.2005
By: Derek Coleman

Only The Beginning...
With all the news surrounding Google's plans to set up its own internet suplement infastructure, no one has yet to expand on the question "What will they do with that?". Sure, sources have said it is for the upcomming services in Google's pipeline or they are still planning the Google OS, but no one has looked at the recent and current events going on that usualy shapes the plans of even the largest of the corporations.

The Possibilities...
The video game industry has grown at a near exponetial rate over the last 10 years and does not show any signs of stopping any time soon. In fact, we are at the eve of the next generation of video gamming with Microsoft's XBox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Revolution. So what does Google have to do with any of this you ask? Think about the possibility of Google using its "data centers+dark fiber project" as a major gaming network. Or how about the eventual streaming of HD video/gamming/etc... over the network? With Google's system in place, companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the ability to expand their respective consoles to meet the demand for services only accessable currently by PCs.

The recent DRM/Root kit feasco by Sony BMG has shown there is a revolution comming to tangible media as we know it and the current situation between the next-gen optical formats, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray has made it about as dificult to commit to either format as it is for Americans to decide on the president in recent elections. This fact will probably determine the way consumers get their media and how they will store that media. Again you may ask, what does google have to do with next-gen storage formats? With the speculated storage space of each of the 300 data centers combine with the bandwidth of the dark fiber (which will soon be bright as ever), the streaming of sub-HD to HD quality video/audio will be in demand with Google holding a large percentage of the fiber optic network in hand. During the transition ISPs will inevitably have to make to stay in the game, Google will have already come up with new ways to optimise its share of the fiber technologies and the cycle will begin again.

With these and many more ideas about what Google is planning for the future, we really have to look again at Sony's DRM debacle and realize that the bigger the company is the bigger its mistakes seem to be (and in this case definately was). Yes, Google too is capable of making the wrong moves. Fortunatly they have kept a pretty good track record so far, but history has shown that large corporations are only as strong as the people working at them. I need not mention MCI WorldCom or Enron do I? These views are a little pessamistic for many, but it is best to cover even the worst case senarios when it comes to big business and its risks.

Press Start...
And so, let the games begin. Soon we all will know more about Google's plans and they may be exactly as some have suggested or they may be something totaly diferent and maybe more interesting than we all have imagined. One thing to keep in mind is to not look at this as an "Ultimate Combo Move" by Google, but to look at it as a preparation for the inevitable future of the internet. With the right attitude about current services such as AdSense, Gmail, and others, Google is in the best position to pull off some amazing things in the future.

Of course this is all speculation, but it is more broad and therefore more likely to produce at the very least a small amount of truth.