Cheaters are an ever-present thorn in the side of online gaming, but Google aims to change all that with Stadia. Speaking to us at GDC Google vice president Phil Harrison outlined the tech’s cheat-proofing properties, enabled by the client and server being “inside the Google backbone”.
Harrison expanded on Google’s keynote promise of “no cheating, no hacking”, telling us, “I think it’s a big win for gamers because so many games have been ruined by an uneven playing field.” A plethora of assistance software, most notably aimbots, exist among gamers and hack away at the fun factor of our favourite titles – as a recent Apex Legends horror story attests.
“Inside Stadia the client and the server are all inside the Google backbone,” Harrison continued, “there’s no way you can interfere with that software or add an additional piece of software to what’s running inside our data centre.”
This setup seems to hold the answer to many modern security concerns, just so long as there are no personal data leaks along the way.
“All that reaches you in your home is video,” Harrison explained. “So it adds a data security to the experience that, yes, helps developers, but actually I think it helps players, because it means that everyone has the same quality of experience.”
Related: Read up before the Google Stadia release date
Stadia was revealed to the world earlier this week at GDC and Google is certainly confident in its cheat-proofing claims. The tech’s applications in areas such as esports will likely be unclear for a while, but with its firm measures against cheating it could benefit the pro scene as well as recreational gaming.