Bad news for Microsoft and Sony, Google might enter the gaming market

Google could soon move ahead with plans to launch a cloud-based game-streaming service.

According to Gizmodo, "Yeti" will use faster Internet in 2018 to carry the service which would run similar to PlayStation Now. PlayStation and Windows PC users have been able to access PlayStation Now since 2015.

PlayStation Now and Google's Yeti work on the same principle as Netflix. Instead of buying physical copies or downloading full titles, streaming allows gamers to play over the Internet. It also saves consumers from expensive one-off purchases and operates on a monthly subscription cost.

PlayStation Now costs UK users £12.99 a month. The only downside to streaming is that most new releases are not made available on the service right away - akin to how movies released on Blu-ray and DVD do no appear on Neftlix until months later.

Microsoft's Xbox One also has a streaming service - Xbox Game Pass - and is available for slightly less at £7.99. However, Microsoft requires you to download the games in full to your console instead of streaming.

It is not yet known if the games on Yeti would be comparable to triple A titles on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, or copy app games that are already available on the Google Play Store.

The Verge has also reported Google had hired former PlayStation and Xbox executive Phil Harrison. "Excited to be able to share that today I've started a new role as Vice President and GM of Google - and relocation (back) to California," Harrison tweeted at the time.