French publishing firm Ubisoft and tech giant Google have announced a partnership to stream the upcoming Assassin's Creed Odyssey to the latter's Chrome browser.

That's according to a blog post from Google in which the company annnounced that a "limited number of participants" will be able to play the forthcoming historical murder simulator free of charge in their Chrome browser.

Little surprise that Ubisoft is playing around with streaming technology. The French firm always appears to be messing about with cutting-edge technology including AI, machine learning and, um, the blockchain.

"Streaming media has transformed the way we consume music and video, making it easy to instantly access your favourite content," product manager Catherine Hsiao said.

"It’s a technically complex process that has come a long way in a few short years, but the next technical frontier for streaming will be much more demanding than video.

"We’ve been working on Project Stream, a technical test to solve some of the biggest challenges of streaming. For this test, we’re going to push the limits with one of the most demanding applications for streaming—a blockbuster video game.

"We’ve partnered with one of the most innovative and successful video game publishers, Ubisoft, to stream their soon-to-be-released Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to your Chrome browser on a laptop or desktop. Starting on October 5th, a limited number of participants will get to play the latest in this best-selling franchise at no charge for the duration of the Project Stream test.

"The technology and creativity behind these triple-A video games is extraordinary—from incredible detail and life-like movement of the characters’ skin, clothing, and hair, to the massive scale of the world in which the game unfolds, down to every last blade of grass.

"Every pixel is powered by an array of real-time rendering technology, artistry, visual effects, animation, simulation, physics and dynamics. We’re inspired by the game creators who spend years crafting these amazing worlds, adventures and experiences, and we’re building technology that we hope will support and empower that creativity."

Having died a death years ago, the streaming market has returned recently. There are rumours of both Google and Microsoft working on streaming platforms for video games, while companies like Polystream - founded by OnLive alum Bruce Grove - are once again trying to tackle this space.