AT&T has teamed up with Google and 505 Games to offer its customers free access to one of the finest games of the last few years, Control: Ultimate Edition. You can find out more details, along with my impressions of the experience, here:
If you have an AT&T postpaid plan, you can play Control right now on your computer, phone or tablet. It’s powered by Immersive Stream for Games, a B2B version of the tech that powers Stadia. Google is licensing the tech to other companies. Its partners can put their own branding on their cloud gaming offerings.
Before the Control Ultimate Edition experience launched today, I put some questions about the project to folks from the three companies involved. What follows are my questions and their responses, lightly edited for length and clarity.
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The first set of answers is from Dov Zimring, Head of Product at Immersive Stream for Games.
Are there any major differences between the tech used for Immersive Stream for Games vs Stadia?
No. In fact, the first platform to use Immersive Stream for Games was Stadia, which continues to utilize it to deliver new features for Stadia developers, publishers and players.
With today’s launch of Control Ultimate Edition, you can see how Immersive Stream for Games powers a gameplay loop for AT&T that’s very similar to the one that Stadia offers to its developer partners. With the power of the cloud, it’s as simple as a click in your browser or a tap on your phone to jump into full AAA games — and it’s that discoverability for players that is making it easier than ever to transition into cloud gaming.
What does this launch mean for Google? Why is it important for the team?
This launch is a great affirmation for Immersive Stream for Games. It represents a continued collaboration with AT&T as our first customer, especially following the public reveal of Immersive Stream for Games back in March. Powering the award-winning Control Ultimate Edition from 505 Games with support for gameplay on smartphones and tablets, this launch helps showcase the possibilities that we’re creating for publishers interested in delivering their own AAA games directly to consumers across any device.
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What are the goals of this partnership with AT&T and 505 Games?
Working with AT&T and 505 Games, we made it a priority to ensure that both teams understood how to connect the dots within the Immersive Stream for Games SDK. Tooling originally developed for Stadia partners now also helps accelerate customers like AT&T using Immersive Stream for Games to quickly get the game up and running, creating remote demos accessible to multiple organizations and testing across AT&T’s new smartphone and tablet endpoints.
For industry publishers, we know that platform porting costs can be a major blocker. This is why we’ve invested in developing tools to minimize engineering costs and time to launch — so that instead of months, it can take just weeks to get players in game. This was a primary focus for our team, and we’re happy to have delivered here.
[Note: You can read more about Google’s efforts to make it easier for developers to port their games to Stadia here.]
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Can you shed some light on the future of Immersive Stream for Games? Are there more partnerships in the works with other companies looking to use the tech?
Following the reveal of Immersive Stream for Games at the Google for Games Developer Summit in March, we saw a lot of interest from studios big and small around the industry through our interest form. While those discussions are ongoing, you can expect to see a new Immersive Stream for Games customer launching soon.
The future of Immersive Stream for Games is rooted in our ability to offer studios the power and flexibility to deliver games content of every kind, directly to their players. That can be full games like Control Ultimate Edition and Batman: Arkham Knight that AT&T is offering today, or it could be offering trials, demos, expansions, subscription bundles — and even entire storefronts. It’s exciting to imagine the future possibilities here — and even more so to be a part of making them a reality.
The following are questions I put to AT&T, along with responses from Matthew Wallace, Assistant Vice President of 5G Product & Innovation.
What are AT&T’s goals for its cloud streaming initiatives?
Our goal is to understand the network needs of these gaming platforms so AT&T 5G can best deliver for the end user. That’s why we’re teaming with major players across the gaming industry to determine how 5G technology can be used to improve consumers’ cloud gaming experience.
We’re actively testing everything from latency requirements to speed consistency that could impact your performance on-the-go.
Why is this launch important for AT&T?
This launch is important to us because we’re providing friction-free gaming to our customers. And, by making click-to-play gaming available on mobile for the first time, we’re also able to showcase the power of our network. That’s because it’s no longer the gamer’s device doing the heavy lift, but a network like AT&T 5G, providing consistent connectivity and high performance that is critical when playing AAA games.
Plus, putting our great minds together with industry-leading collaborators helps us to deliver on their network needs and pushes the industry forward. In the future, we imagine publishers could utilize the combination of 5G connectivity and cloud streaming technology to offer trial play sessions directly from a search result. This gives gamers the option to try before they buy. If they move forward with the purchase, their progress could be saved in the cloud, so they can pick up right where they left off on the downloaded version.
Why is this launch important for customers?
It’s important to our customers because we’re removing barriers for them. With this launch, we’re bringing click-to-play access for the first time on mobile with no downloads, no subscriptions, no extra cost and no gaming hardware requirements. They can jump into the full game of the hit title right now on the devices they already own — including smartphones and tablets. For customers with AT&T 5G, they’ll experience low lag, faster ping times and higher capacity that gamers crave.
How long will Control Ultimate Edition be available for AT&T customers to stream?
This is a limited time offer.
Why was Control Ultimate Edition selected for this second launch?
Control Ultimate Edition is a fan-favorite with numerous industry awards. It has a dynamic story and cutting-edge graphics that can demonstrate the synergy of cloud-based rendering combined with a strong network. We want to give our customers a taste of the high-performance gaming that Control Ultimate Edition can deliver without expensive equipment or account sign-up. And especially the chance to experience all of this on the go via AT&T 5G.
Has AT&T tested gameplay over 4G LTE?
Yes.
How does performance compare with 5G connections?
Customers with AT&T 5G can experience lower lag and less stutter compared to 4G LTE. It provides the fast ping times, reliable streaming and a more consistent network performance needed for gaming today and in the future.
Can you share any details on how many customers have played Batman: Arkham Knight following the previous launch?
Tens of thousands of our customers have enjoyed the Batman: Arkham Knight experience already.
Are you able to share any insights on how long people played it for (even as percentages)?
We’ve had a higher than expected average play time with a substantial amount of players playing the entire game from beginning to end. We look forward to even more customers enjoying this now that both games are available on mobile.
The last set of answers is from Charlotte Bavister, Partnerships & Marketing Manager, First Party at 505 Games.
How did 505 get involved in this project?
We already had a strong existing relationship with Google through onboarding a selection of 505 titles onto the Stadia platform. To work on this project with them seemed like a natural next step in our relationship. Google had a pre-existing relationship with AT&T and facilitated the introduction to help us deliver this unique customer experience.
What makes Control a good choice for a cloud streaming game?
Control Ultimate Edition combines an award-winning and richly detailed single-player narrative with reality-bending visuals so it is important that whatever platform people play on, they can do so confidently. AT&T understands that streaming Control Ultimate Edition would make a great showcase for this type of gaming experience. AT&T’s cloud streaming allows for Control’s gameplay to exist on-the-go without compromising the high-performance gaming needed. It’s the perfect blend of storytelling and tech working in unison.
Why is this launch important for 505?
Control is already an award-winning title and it’s important for 505 to look for exciting new ways to promote our portfolio of games, and to expand the number of platforms in which players can experience our titles. Having Control available through AT&T is important as it not only shows that high performance gaming can exist away from the constraints of expensive tech set-ups, but that games rich in narrative and scope can confidently exist on mobile devices.
What is 505 hoping to take away from this partnership?
If AT&T can help show people that their favorite 505 games can be played seamlessly in new and exciting ways, that’s a huge win, not only for AT&T and 505 Games, but for gamers themselves. Broadening the audience and making the game relevant by playing on a device, on the go is a nod to how far technology has come.
