Apple has not been a fan of game streaming services being available in the App Store for years. And while the company did make some changes to technically make it a possibility, the workaround isn’t great for companies actually trying to make it happen.
The workaround? Safari. Amazon launched its own game streaming service, Luna, via Safari back in October. And just today NVIDIA launched access to GeForce NOW, its own game streaming service, via a web app. It’s not as pristine an experience as a standard iOS app, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
And now Google’s next up. Today, Google announced that, in the coming weeks, it’s going to start testing it’s Stadia game streaming service via Safari. This test will actually be public testing, so folks who want to jump on the Stadia bandwagon for iOS can do so soon.
This is good news for folks who have already decided to use Stadia as their go-to gaming option. Of course, Microsoft is waiting in the wings. The company is planning to bring its xCloud game streaming service to iOS devices via the web sometime in 2021.
As mentioned above, Apple tweaked its App Store rules in September, so much so that it can say it now allows services like Google’s Stadia, GeForce NOW, or Microsoft’s xCloud for iOS devices. However, the steps necessary for Microsoft and Google to bring those services to the App Store are tedious at best. So the likelihood that xCloud and Stadia and other cloud game streaming services would arrive on iOS was still bleak, despite the rule changes. For its part, Microsoft wasn’t impressed with Apple’s olive branch for cloud game streaming services.
What do you think? Are you going to check out Google Stadia on iOS when it launches?