Stadia

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Thoughts on Google's Stadia?
They're aiming to take over pretty much everything that has to do with gaming - even hardware (new controller).
Streaming is most likely the future of gaming. It'll be interesting to see if Google succeeds.



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www.stadia.com
 
Bears watching.  I have a pretty good isp provider that doesn't cap and offers some pretty decent bandwith so I am confident streaming fluidly would not be an issue for me as it would be for some and therein is the trick: It will largely depend on ISP I think although Google seem pretty confident they can get this to everyone. Remains to be seen.

I've seen some concern over what this does to modding and I confess it doesn't look like this will be friendly to modders. But there are or will be tradeoffs. Modders will hate it but those that can run it and don't have the finances to drop a grand + on a decent gaming rig will probably welcome this plus the ability to game on the go is going to probably push this along.

Some form of streaming is in the future of gaming, I think, whether we like it or not. I strongly suspect the next version of consoles (PS5) will have a streaming component to them.
 
There's still at least one more console generation between this before this becomes mainstream. They advertise having twice as many TFLOPs as a console but anyone who knows anything about hardware knows that TFLOPs doesn't mean real world performance. Not to mention they are targeting 4k@60 when even top of the line hardware has trouble attaining consistent performance at that level. The 2.7Ghz hyperthreaded processor is a complete joke at best easily being outdone by even midrange hardware today for less than a hundred bucks. All of this is making the gigantic leap of faith that they'll somehow magically hide the multi-dozen-millisecond delay between input-processing-output and accounting for random packet loss... even on a 10ms ping to the server that's an absolute minimum of 36ms delay! In a world where high refresh rate monitors that advertise low latency and e-sports competitiveness as a feature!

Google, Valve etc can't even get reliable streaming across the local network with a wired connection. This is a huge flop that will only stick around because Google has infinite resources.
 
I think they can pull it off, but they're early. We need to see what kind of quality they can provide on current networks.
Playstation Now hasn't really taken off, so with this big push there are no serious competitors to Stadia.
With Google's huge cash flow they can keep this going. Soon 5G will hit us, and they might just be in the forefront of game streaming.
 
It's not about bandwidth. You can deliver 1000TB/s but still be unplayable if everything arrives .1s late. Google can't fix the internet infrastructure between their server and your home.
 
The real question is, will Google stay interested long enough to support this project or will they drop it when the lead person loses interest, like a dozen of other projects over the past few years?
 
I've read about Germans having better ping to the US than I have to the Netherlands with my FTTH. Low ping requires ISPs to pay the companies that have the Internet's infrastructure.

Services like playing Playstation exclusives on PC make sense for those who want to play a few games, but don't want them so much to buy a console. And considering consoles are usually sold at a loss, it also benefits the company.

To make this work all games would have to change game difficulty, making everything slower so the player has time to react.
 
In a similar vein to Danath's last bit, I think there's no problem with game streaming for genres where reaction time isn't a factor, or games that have considerable tolerance. For something like CSGO this won't work without some miraculous infrastructure revamp, but it would be a piece of cake to play a game like Divinity Original Sin or Civ. RPGs with real-time combat could swing it, if they're of the kind that have little dramatic pauses during fights for giving you time to react. Any game with timing tolerance of just a few frames would be frustrating. Good luck dodging in Dark Souls.
 
More Stadia info.

We still don’t know exactly when Stadia is going to launch, but it will arrive in the following countries this November:
the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Other countries will have to wait until 2020 – which in all likelihood will probably coincide with the launch of the Stadia Base pricing plan.

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Initially, you'll need a Stadia Pro subscription to buy games, but next year "base" accounts will become available, allowing you to purchase games without a subscription.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/06/06/google-stadia-games-release-date-price-confirmed/
https://www.pcgamer.com/rumour-google-stadia-will-launch-in-november-pricing-revealed/

It doesn't explicitly say that all games are free to play with the Pro subscription. That concerns me.
 
As someone who takes an interest in technology, I'll be interested to see how this goes. I like the idea behind Stadia, letting people play games with high FPS and visual fidelity without their having to spend so much money on a PC. I mean, there are a lot of people who have more important uses for $1000+ USD than a gaming PC, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't get to enjoy good looking, well-performing games. I don't expect to use it myself, though, at least not for a good while after it launches. For one, I'd need better internet. And for two, I have a good desktop rig that's only a few years old (and cost a lot when I bought it), and I reckon it's got a couple more years in it before it's time for a rebuild. And, when that time comes, unless money's tight I'll probably still pay up for the new components, just because I enjoy and take pride in having my gaming PC.
 
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