According to recent reports, the company, which is owned by Google, is testing the possibility of offering users retro-style arcade titles on its video platform.

● And how does all this relate to the stadium of the giant from Mountain View who is no longer with us?

Is Google still interested in making its mark in the gaming industry, despite the closure of its online gaming service Stadia? It seems so. Recent reports reveal that YouTube – the video streaming platform owned by the Mountain View giant – is currently piloting a new initiative called Playables, which aims to bring online games directly to the popular YouTube platform.

According to knowledgeable sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube is increasingly sending out invitations to its employees to test Playables – which is essentially a feature that allows users to play retro-style arcade games directly within the YouTube mobile app, on Android and iOS-based devices, or through web browsers in versions The desktop of the platform.

For now, not a single one of the names of the game titles has been revealed, but in the articles about the innovation that Google is trying to implement, a hypothesis stood out about one of them – Stack Bounce, an arcade game in the classic Brick Breaker style, where players skillfully destroy walls with a bouncing ball.

Gaming instead of lost advertising profits?

The Journal explained in its article that YouTube already generates quite a bit of revenue thanks to game broadcasts for gamers, but according to it, Playables presents a new approach with an option to increase profits in the field, which may even compensate the company for losing shares in the traditional advertising field. This loss is already occurring, and will occur even more strongly, in the online advertising sector for a number of reasons and disruptions, among them regulatory ones, such as the European Union’s decision from this month that Google actually operates as an advertising monopoly, and the sanctions that the European Commission intends to impose on the company.

Also the entry of ChatGPT into the search arena, for example when Microsoft implemented it in its Bing engine, sabotages and will sabotage even more Google’s hegemony in advertising, according to analysts.

In fact, in the process of introducing games to YouTube, if it happens, Google is also tailing Netflix – the famous video-on-demand platform – which is also making its inroads into the field of games. In recent times, Netflix has made notable acquisitions of game studios, bolstering its collection of mobile indie games available to subscribers.

So it’s true, Google failed to bring the streaming service to Gaming Stadia, which it established in 2019 but which ultimately closed in mid-January of this year, but according to estimates the new initiative to offer games on YouTube is something completely different – mainly because YouTube already has a huge audience that visits the site regularly , so it will have no problem exposing that particular new product to millions or even billions of users.