Update: 

I’m excited to finally be able to share that I have joined Google as VP!

— Jade Raymond (@ibjade) March 12, 2019

Jade Raymond, former Assassin's Creed Executive Producer and head of Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive, has joined Google as a Vice President. It is likely that she will report directly to Phil Harrison, the former Xbox and Playstation executive who joined Google as a Vice President last year and is believed to be heading the Google Gaming Division. It is quite possible that she will be heading up a new 1st party studio for Google. They are definitely taking this gaming initiative seriously. 

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Update: Google releases official teaser trailer for their 2019 GDC event:

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Original Post:

For those that don't know, Google has reportedly been working on a next-gen gaming console to go alongside their Project Stream streaming service for about a year now. There have been reports that they were considering purchasing some studios in order to build up a 1st party as well as planning to throw some money around to moneyhat some 3rd party exclusives. Phil Harrison, who was formerly an executive for both Xbox and Playstation, is possibly leading their console team, as he joined Google as a Vice President in January 2018, reportedly in their hardware division. Now Google has announced a mysterious gaming event for GDC later this month where it is rumored that they will announce their next gen console and more details about their Project Stream streaming service. 

Now a patent for a Google controller has surfaced:

It is worth noting that the patent isn't for the controller design itself, but rather for a notification system built into the controller that alerts the player about a game invitation, an opportunity to post a score on a leaderboard, or a chat request, so it is possible that this is just a rough sketch designed to accompany the notification patent and not the intended final design of the controller. Never-the-less, somebody has made a render of the controller based on the illustration, and it does not look good at all, poor ergonomics, non-textured analog sticks that are too small, and controversial parallel sticks instead of offset sticks:

Meanwhile, some rumors have surfaced about the console and Google's Gaming Plans from other sources. The hardware is being developed under the codename Metallurgy. The dev kits have the codename Forge, with plans for 2 variants rumored a year ago, a weaker console named codenamed Google Steel and a more powerful console codenamed Google Titanium, but according to recent rumors they are now considering dropping Google Steel and releasing Titanium only, since hardware costs have dropped enough for their planned Titanium specs to release it at a mass market price. The dev kit is said to be faster than Xbox One X, with both an x86 chipset codenamed Avalanche which will power the games and a ARM chipset codenamed Snow Cone, which will run the UI, sleep mode, and simple apps. 

In terms of software, Google is designing the system so that developers can release on both the console and the streaming service with minimal effort. They reportedly lined up several 3rd party partners already, including Ubisoft (unsurprising since AC Odyssey was the beta game for Project Stream) and Sega. Sega is rumored to be a major partner, with Google possibly wanting to revive some old Sega IP's on their console as exclusives. 

My hands are cowering in fear...they're saying..."it hurts".

That is disturbing........

It looks somewhat cheaply made. Though to be fair, it's a leaked prototype, so it will be different if it ever comes out. But why would Google want to enter the gaming market? Isn't it already overcrowded as it is?

I'll reserve judgement until their keynote.

The controller is already a fail. This is just going to be like any other android based console.

Without good software to support it, it will fall to the side and die.

Google was reportedly looking to both build up 1st party studios and buy 1st party studios a year ago. Today's rumors also say they have possibly lined up some Sega exclusives. 

Seems unlikely that a patent lawyer would "leak" internal IP. They probably know those rules. They probably just drew a generic controller.

IT companies patent all kinds of things. This patent could just be about how a generic controller could access a menu in Android.

The controller doesn't look particularly good, but it still exceeded my expectations. I was expecting something completely atrocious