YouTube is reportedly conducting internal testing on a new online game offering.
The Google-owned video sharing platform’s new product ‘Playables’ will give users access to games on mobile devices or desktop computers, according to screenshots shared in an email with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Marking Google’s first foray into the gaming market since the failure of its gaming platform Stadia last year, Playables would allow users to instantly access and play games via YouTube’s website or app on devices running Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS mobile systems.
“Gaming has long been a focus at YouTube,” a company spokesperson told the WSJ. “We’re always experimenting with new features but have nothing to announce right now.”
The news follows a time of upheaval in the gaming industry as Microsoft continues to fight for its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, the makers of the popular Call of Duty gaming franchise, to go through.
The merger has been greenlit by the EU yet rejected by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority over competition concerns.
In the US, the merger seemed poised to receive approval, but the US Federal Trade Commission has recently complicated matters further by arguing in a federal court that the deal should be blocked.
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