Poll: Google Stadia - CLOSING DOWN on 18th Jan 2023

Are you going to pick up Google Stadia?

  • Yes, at launch

    Votes: 20 5.3%
  • Yes, but after launch

    Votes: 24 6.3%
  • No

    Votes: 286 75.5%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 49 12.9%

  • Total voters
    379
Yeah, I thought that was terrible. Destiny 2 is the only thing you can play before you have to shell out further. Where's the game pass equivalent with a selection of older games like Doom 2016, Dishonored 2, Assassin's Creed Origins, etc etc.

If Microsoft launches xCloud this year, it'll just trounce Stadia even if they only offer 1080p Xbox One S visuals.
 
Anyway, what is stadia? is it a box of tricks that links to the CC ultra or do the pads just connect straight to the CCs (maybe that's why the ultra's were rumoured to support bluetooth peripherals...)

It's a game console in the cloud. The video output is processed by Chromecast devices or Google Chrome web browser instead of a monitor. The controllers connect via Wifi direct to the Stadia servers.
 
At the end of the day, it isn't going to be able to play The Last Of Us 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 or God of War 2 so that's where it fails for me because I have to get a PS5 for those. (Or put up with PlayStation Now which doesn't offer 4K streaming yet, maybe that's coming next year with the PS5.)
 
So initial purchase of £119, plus £8.99 PM sub, and even though there are free games you still have to actually buy the ones you want?

Are they insane? Or have i completely misread it all...

The £119 is just the Founders starter pack if you want to play this year. It's more of a soft launch.

Later on, if you only want to play at 1080p resolution, then you can buy your game, use Google Chrome instead of a Chromecast and use your Xbone or DualShock 4 controller instead of the Stadia one. Total cost = the price of your game.
 
Will there not be data implications for this with ISP’s? 4K streaming will hammer your connection. Nearly 16GB an hour!

Won’t you eventually get severely throttled by your ISP, or even worse, won’t they decide that it’s not sustainable and start charging extra for heavy stadia users?

Aren't most UK ISPs touting unlimited downloads with absolutely zero throttling these days?
 
Well, I'm sold on Stadia. My XB1 is screwed

That's quite a good point. If your console broke down outside its 1-year warranty period, you are basically screwed and have to shell out another few hundred quid to buy a new one or get it repaired. Whereas with this, you don't have to worry about hardware ever again.
 
I’m most interested in seeing games that use platform specific features. The Ghost Recon game showed you live feeds of your three squad mates. You couldn’t really do that on other platforms because it relies on video being uploaded, integrated into the frame buffer, etc.
 
Yeah, multiplayer could benefit a lot.

I notice on the specs page, it says resolutions are "up to ..." but the frame rate is listed as 60fps. I wonder if this means Google has mandated that all games must be 60fps and use reconstruction techniques to get the resolution to 4K or if they simply mean the video is encoded to 60fps and the in-game framerate could still be 30fps or anything in between.
 
I think what they needed to do was copy Epic Games weekly free games offerings. They’ve certainly got the money to do this and people would have a way to test the service and build a starter library. Problem is that all the games would need recoding to Vulkan so it’s not quite as easy.

I really don’t like the idea of shelling out for a game and not being able to play it if your internet connection goes down.
 
What they need to do is to get developers making games that do things that won't be possible elsewhere rather than just prettier graphics. e.g. on Tom Clancy's Breakpoint (I think that's the one) you can view your teammates' cameras in realtime. That wouldn't be possible anywhere else apart from Stadia.*

*Well it would be except you'd be running into potential issues with users' internet upload capability which could result in blank screens or lots of lag.
 
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