The video game industry giant Tencent has just presented in China its new streaming game service START, a system that also introduces a peculiar and unconventional modular touch Gamepad.
This gaming system is already available in China for Android mobile devices, Windows or MacOS computers, Smart TV with Android TV system and soon on iOS mobiles if Apple allows it, which we doubt. The service is already up and running, we can download the client even though it is useless because it is only available in China and does not allow running outside that country, plus the servers would be far away and we would have a lot of delay.
This game streaming service START is mainly focused on mobile or casual games, it does not intend for now to offer big budget PC titles. Tencent controls many successful studios such as Riot Games (LoL, Valorant), MiniClip, Funcom, Grinding Gear Games, creators of Path of Exile and has 40% of Epic Games so it will allow us to play Fortnite anywhere. In addition to participation in others such as Ubisoft, Activision, Paradox, PUBG, Platinum that can open a large catalog.
Along with the START service has been presented a peculiar modular Gamepad that aims to offer a good control experience on devices that do not have touch interface. A rather complex point in Android system as we have seen in Android TV-Boxes that have compatibility problems with many titles currently. Presumably, in addition to this Gamepad with touch functions, Tencent’s games and apps will add aids to control the games with ease.
For now Tencent’s START streaming service as we say remains only in China, but with the power of this company perhaps we will see a version adapted for the Western market. It will also be interesting to see how the new touch Gamepad presented works and how it integrates with mobile games on our screen.
