Google Stadia, Live Stream Wrap-Up

[The Benjamins]

https://store.google.com/product/stadia_founders_edition

 

https://projectstream.google.com/speedtest

 

 

Quote

Start playing Stadia with Founder’s Edition.
Stadia begins with Founder’s Edition.3 Get access to Stadia at launch, three free months of Stadia Pro for yourself, and three months of Stadia Pro to give away to a friend with a Buddy Pass.4 Founder’s Edition also includes the exclusive Night Blue Stadia Controller,5 a Google Chromecast Ultra6 for streaming to your TV, and a Founder’s Stadia Name, all for $129. Your Founder’s Edition will ship in November 2019.

 

Pre-order Includes
Night Blue Stadia Controller. (Founders only.)
 

 

Stadia Founder pre-Order Pack: $129.99

Stadia Controller

4k Cromcast

3 Months of Stadia Pro ($9.99/m)

Buddy Pass (3 month Pro for a friend)

 

 

Stadia Controller: $69.99

Has USB-C for charging

Bluetooth 4.2

Wifi 5

 

 

Game List:

Spoiler

DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2
DOOM Eternal
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Destiny 2
Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid
Baldur's Gate 3
Metro Exodus
Thumper
GRID
SAMURAI SHODOWN
Football Manager 2020
Get Packed
The Elder Scrolls Online
The Crew 2
The Division 2
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Trials Rising
NBA 2K
Borderlands 3
Farming Simulator 19
Mortal Kombat 11
Rage 2
FINAL FANTASY XV
Gylt
Tomb Raider Trilogy
Darksiders Genesis
Just Dance 2020

 

[maartendc]

This is... I don't really know what to think. Comparing it to console gaming:

 

- The upfront cost is lower, but is still there, $130 is not exactly cheap for a controller and Chromecast. You can buy a used Ps4 for under $200.

 

- You don't HAVE to pay a monthly fee, but you still need to buy the games. In a way, the "ownership" of the games is even more limited this way then buying digital games, since they run in the cloud. Physical PS4 disc games are yours to keep. And at least with digital games on a PS4, once you download them, you can keep playing them forever (if i am not mistaken). Same with buying Digital on GOG (DRM Free) and Steam (promised to turn off DRM if they ever stop the service). This service, everything would just go away, since there is no local running of anything.

 

- If you DO pay a monthly fee, you get much better quality, and get some free games, but also have to pay for most games. I guess this is similar to paying monthly for Playstation Plus or Xbox Gold or something, for some perks.

 

All in all, this is not for me. I hate the idea of having to run everything off a server, and being at the Mercy of Google for everything. I much prefer buying disc games (PS4) or DRM free games (GOG) and have them run on MY hardware.

 

I do not really see any benefits to this, other than the SLIGHTLY lower upfront cost. To me, paying $500 for a midrange gaming PC or $300 for a console vs $130 for this, is insignificant.

[PocketNerd]

Remember folks, NEVER PRE-ORDER

[Taf the Ghost]

It's EGS + Onlive. 

 

It'll work when they roll out the Mobile versions, but, before that, it's nothing really interesting. It's just another game store that Google can data mine.

 

Also, Google enters Gaming and the first thing they did was setup an Early Access Service. That's the best bit from the stream.

 

More seriously, Google will probably abandon this in about 3 years, after their first wholly developed games don't do well. Then they'll try to bring in every exploitative F2P MMO and then make money on Microtransactions in SE Asia. They're going to have to do a lot of work to avoid that fate.

[The Benjamins]

35 minutes ago, maartendc said:

This is... I don't really know what to think. Comparing it to console gaming:

 

- The upfront cost is lower, but is still there, $130 is not exactly cheap for a controller and Chromecast. You can buy a used Ps4 for under $200.

 

 

Well you are not required to buy anything, anything with a chrome browser supports Stadia, and you can use any controller or K&M

[IAmAndre]

Me: (grabs some popcorn)

 

I personally this is the next Google Plus/Hello/...

I can't imagine anyone dropping their console/PC for this and I can't imagine casual gamers with no gaming hardware spend that amount of money when they can buy a console or a phone for a little more money.

[yian88]

This is going to be extremely successful if they can fix latency input lag, I can't fucking wait for it.

Can't wait to play games on my new galaxy tab s4 2k amoled maxed out.

I'll buy that controller in a fucking snap.

 

So many traditional PC console gamers hating on reddit and forums hahahahahahaha.

Traditional gaming is KO imo.

[illegalwater]

I am not looking forward to game streaming taking off. Hopefully it just becomes another avenue to play games instead of the PC/console killer.

[Drak3]

I didn't have high expectations and was still let down.

[WereCat]

I'll give this a try before hating... 

Worst case scenario, it sux and I'll lose 10eur.

Best case scenario, I'll get to play Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider for 10eur.

 

Edit:

Not available for my country. K... 

[DeScruff]

2 hours ago, maartendc said:

Being at the Mercy of Google, My ISP, and everyone in-between for everything.

Fixed that for ya.

 

[maartendc]

3 hours ago, Sypran said:

Fixed that for ya.

 

I mean sure. I have Gigabit internet without data caps, so the internet side of the thing is the least of my worries.

 

But for people with data caps or slow / unstable connections, this is just dead on arrival for sure.

 

Again, this is not that dissimilar to other services. It requires an upfront investment in both hardware and you still need to "buy" the games. The only difference is the hardware is slightly cheaper than it was before...

 

Ps4 has had streaming gaming for a looong time through Playstation Now. It was never good (blurry image, latency, etc.). I doubt the Google engineers somehow solved everything that the Sony engineers could never figure out over many years. But we shall see.

 

5 hours ago, The Benjamins said:

Well you are not required to buy anything, anything with a chrome browser supports Stadia, and you can use any controller or K&M

No, as far as I am aware, the controller connects directly to your WIFI, and is the reason they can keep the input lag so low. So you CANNOT just use any controller. The service only works with their controller.

[DildorTheDecent]

Controller looks like cheap aliexpress garbage.

 

Hopefully the option to use an existing Xbox 360/One is an option.

[TimeOmnivore]

As someone who put over 100 hours in AC:Odyssey in the Project Stream beta for Stadia, I'm cautiously optimistic for future details regarding this service. For example, if you own the games on Uplay, Steam, etc., do you have to buy a different version for Stadia? How many quality games are going to be available for "free" as part of the subscription service? Are those games temporary, or do they stay available on the platform forever (or at least a significantly long time)? Is modding, or anything close to it, going to be possible? Will save games be transferable to PC? I think the answers to many of these questions will be the deciding factor as to how well this takes off, if at all.

 

The subscription service almost definitely won't be something I see people keeping active indefinitely, but resubscribing off and on every once in a while to play a select few games is something I can see many people, possibly including myself, doing - particularly if you lack the hardware to run more demanding games yourself.

 

At the end of the day, I welcome new services and options for people to play games on - so long as Stadia won't have any bullshit exclusive nonsense like PS4/Xbox/Nintendo, I hope it does well. Though if this means we get yet another player in the exclusivity market, I hope it dies.

[The Benjamins]

1 hour ago, maartendc said:

No, as far as I am aware, the controller connects directly to your WIFI, and is the reason they can keep the input lag so low. So you CANNOT just use any controller. The service only works with their controller.

During the livestream they specifically said that you can use any controller.

[The Benjamins]

14 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

 

Hi

[Guest]

I just can’t see this as a good product.

[Andreas Lilja]

Wait you need to buy the games? I thought this would be subscription based. 

[sof006]

The only benefit I can see here is that you don't need to download to play. Just "stream" it. But thats literally the only benefit, and not one i'd see the point as i'd rather download the game and have it physically there to play at all times.

[DeScruff]

2 hours ago, maartendc said:

Ps4 has had streaming gaming for a looong time through Playstation Now. It was never good (blurry image, latency, etc.). I doubt the Google engineers somehow solved everything that the Sony engineers could never figure out over many years. But we shall see.

Well they might have 1 thing over Sony: Servers everywhere, and lots of them.
I dunno if Sony was using their own servers or renting servertime from IBM or something (Like this Liquid Sky thing that closed down their service down shortly after the Google Stadia announcement I am going to LOVE seeing one of the co-founders this summer... ) but I wouldn't doubt they just didn't have the infrastructure for such an endeavor.

However a company that practically runs a majority of the internet? I mean if there are 2 companies that have the infrastructure right now for game streaming it probably would be Google or Amazon. - Im not saying there wont be problems, but "You need to connect to a server thats in a different timezone"  is probably not going to be one of them.

[Arika]

Somehow I don't think my 7mbps down and 0.5mbps up is going to handle this very well. Guess ill still to real hardware. 

[Misanthrope]

Still having to buy games makes no sense: it reeks of Game Publisher's childish demands: They have been trying for a while to push the concept of paying for a single game multiple fucking times with DLC and now that they could conceivable sell games as a service they were probably the ones telling Google we still want upfront payment.

 

You know why? Because they still want to cheat people into buying shit games that are boring, repetitive, broken and generally under-deliver on all promises and they refuse to actually let their products stand on their fucking merit for once on a pure "Pay as you go" model.

Sorry but if Google wants to succeed they need to push back against this nonsense otherwise it's going to be crap nobody wants. I get that they don't have enough devs on their side but letting publishers make their brand new service and investment be the objectively fucking worst option of them all is not how you break into the market.

[Totallycasual]

I can't emphasise this enough.... i will never ever ever spend a single fucking cent of my money on a gaming system that won't work without a good internet connection.  If Sony continue making good quality single player offline gaming experiences they'll always have my money, if they shift their primary focus to bullshit like this i'll shift my money to whoever isn't pushing this crap. 

[The Benjamins]

2 hours ago, Newenthusiast said:

I can't emphasise this enough.... i will never ever ever spend a single fucking cent of my money on a gaming system that won't work without a good internet connection.  If Sony continue making good quality single player offline gaming experiences they'll always have my money, if they shift their primary focus to bullshit like this i'll shift my money to whoever isn't pushing this crap. 

Is it ok if they do both?

[Taf the Ghost]

16 minutes ago, ONOTech said:

Why are you so against it? I'm genuinely curious. & does the "good internet connection" part include online multiplayer games or are you talking strictly cloud gaming? 

 

I've personally tried cloud gaming before and I can say it wasn't for me. Now, cloud editing is a whole 'nother beast that could be a worthwhile investment and seems more promising in my opinion. Latency isn't as important, and you can really put server hardware to great use!

If you live in a major, modern city where services are generally expected to work, you can see why people wouldn't be too bothered, but if you've ever lived (or currently live) in an area where things can get spotty due to weather or other factors, you'll be very attuned to losing out on something you've invested a lot of money into suddenly disappearing. If you're sensitive to the fragility of the infrastructure, you'll always have a very different opinion on the matter.

 

As for Cloud-base services, anything that isn't heavily latency dependent can be viably done there, but since we're already into the Hybrid Cloud era, even most major businesses understand that there's only so many tasks that work well in the Cloud.