This giant 'S' spotted in San Francisco is almost certainly the logo for Google's highly-anticipated game streaming service (GOOG, GOOGL)

• A giant S logo, for what is likely Google's highly anticipated gaming announcement, was spotted by 9to5Google on Monday.
• The "S" likely stands for "Stream," as in "Project Stream," Google's Netflix-like video game streaming service it announced last October.
• Interestingly, 9to5Google also snapped a photo of an empty display case, about the size in which one might expect a gaming console to sit. 
• Business Insider's Ben Gilbert has speculated that the company will likely release its own gaming hardware as a means to stream games onto TVs, but that it won't be as powerful as say, an Xbox 4 or PlayStation 4. 

The name for Google's highly anticipated gaming announcement at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) Tuesday apparently starts with an "S." 

A photo of the never-before-seen Google gaming logo was first tweeted by 9to5Google inside San Francisco's Moscone Center where GDC is taking place this week. 

The "S" likely stands for "Stream," as in "Project Stream," Google's Netflix-like video game streaming service it announced last October. The project has been in beta testing ever since with limited spaces available, but more details around the project (and a formal name) are almost assuredly coming at Google's keynote at GDC tomorrow. 

Read more: Google's ambitious plan to push into video games is about to be unveiled this week: Here's what we're expecting

Interestingly, 9to5Google also snapped a photo of an empty display case, about the size in which one might expect a gaming console to sit. 

Outside the Moscone Center, display cases have been filled with classic gaming consoles, like the original PlayStation and Sega's Dreamcast.

 

There's been feverish speculation about whether Google will release a console of its own, but the company has kept mum about any hardware component to Project Stream. Business Insider's Ben Gilbert theorizes that Google will likely release its own gaming hardware as a means to stream games onto TVs, but that it won't be as powerful as say, an Xbox 4 or PlayStation 4. 

"Why's that?" Gilbert writes. "We'd have heard about it! Between research and development costs, associated business deals with game makers, and hardware production, these things leak." 

Also of note: Google is actively promoting the imminent game streaming offering on its "Made by Google" ecommerce site, furthering the likelihood that some kind of an in-house hardware device is on its way. 

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