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

[ic1male]

The only thing I don't like is the idea of Google just pulling games from the service at the whim of publishers. Are they going to do what other digital distributors do and leave you access to your purchases (but not allow anyone to buy it going forwards) or are they going to remove access altogether? I don't think I've seen an official answer to this.

There are multiple benefits which sound really good though - no worrying about saves as they are all cloud based, all games run from an SSD, no having to wait for patches to download. A lot of people moan about no mod capability but I'm one of the rare ones who refuses to use mods anyway.

 

[ic1male]

I see it as an inevitable future and people will have to get on board with it eventually.

I think PC will always be around. You've got to develop these games on a PC so I'm sure there will be PC versions for those that want them.

 

[ic1male]

To those skeptical of Stadia, what will it take for you to give it a go, or is it literally a case of no console/disc, no deal?

I'll give it a whirl but as @Kreeeee says they have to either give a free trial or free games. I'm not paying £50 for a game plus £10 to play in 4K before I've given it a good testing.

 

[ic1male]

Is that you, Phil Harrison?

 

[ic1male]

As for Read Dead 2, 4K HDR 60FPS at high, possibly ultra setting, can you imagine the PC (and costs) required to run this at that level.

But... what we don't know yet (and maybe Digital Foundry will add Stadia to their analyses) is whether that 4K is native or upscaled somehow and is the 60fps a locked 60. Interesting times ahead.

 

[ic1male]

Picture quality though, 40mbps 2160p VP9 is going to look very rough compared to direct render and will be immediately obvious.

Not sure I agree there. 4K YouTube looks indistinguishable (to my eyes) and the Stadia encoder is doing special things over and above YouTube.

 

[ic1male]

What does that gobbledegook even mean? It's still going to feel 30fps and the controller latency will still be 33ms minimum? I certainly wouldn't pay a monthly sub to play 30fps.

 

[ic1male]

So now they are claiming it will feel faster and more responsive than local hardware.

How is that even possible?

it will use AI to predict what you’re going to do next control-wise. In essence, the game is going to play itself and you’ll be watching. Just like Twitch.

 

[ic1male]

Just out of curiosity.. what triple A exclusives will stadia be getting/launching with ?

I think there's a few timed exclusives in this list but nothing that will class as triple A.

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

 

[ic1male]

Stadia arrives November 19th.

https://www.blog.google/products/stadia/stadia-arrives-november-19/

 

[ic1male]

Lets see how it turns out. I won't be touching it anytime soon, I know that much.

It's certainly going to be interesting to watch, I'm most looking forward to Digital Foundry's work to see what's good and bad about it.

 

[ic1male]

Not at all, I was hoping before I looked for a pure game pass experience without the download, i.e. hundreds of back titles and the latest games added on release for say £10 a month. However it's not that.

Well you're halfway there with PS Now for that. They just don't have the latest games. But there are 400 games or something on there now.

In other news, Google are shutting their Daydream VR project down. It doesn't give one much confidence to splash out on Stadia when it could go boobs up in 2023 and you have nothing to show for it but a controller.

 

[ic1male]

Next bit of news. The wireless controller is only wireless if you are playing on a TV with Chromecast Ultra. If you want to use it on your PC or mobile device, you'll need to connect it with USB-C.

As someone on Eurogamer comments, this is Google StaDOA.

 

[ic1male]

As I’ve said previously, I think going from here people (and the older generations) are just too set in their ways to entertain the notion of only streaming your games.

I love the idea of no hardware, no patches, no downloading but as someone who likes to play older games as well, I'd be worried that one day the service could cease to exist and all those games you've bought are lost. At least if you buy on PC, you've got a greater chance of those games still working (and on consoles to a lesser extent). That's why I'd prefer Stadia to be a Game Pass type arrangement where you can rent games cheaply and I wouldn't feel too aggrieved if it all went boobs up later on down the line.

I've tried streaming PS3 games on PS Now and it worked just fine. Stadia's infrastructure is reportedly even better. I don't think lag will be a big problem for most people. Just @Kreeeee who can detect lag in the nanosecond range.

 

[ic1male]

Google must have more money than Epic. Why can't they give a Stadia game away each week for nowt. That might help sway some of the naysayers.

 

[ic1male]

Thumper is a great game but you have to be absolutely spot on with the rythym presses it will be very interesting to see if Stadia can handle the latency. Same with mk11

Rhythm games are going to play themselves with predictive input. The game knows what you've got to press so it will press it for you just at the right time to alleviate latency but you think you've pressed it.

 

[ic1male]

PCs are unoptimized. A fixed hardware platform can potentially extract twice as much power as a PC. Plus there is always the option of multiple Stadia instances.

 

[ic1male]

I reckon in 20 years time (maybe sooner) we will all be consuming gaming via this type of service. Well if Trump hasnt wiped us out in a nuclear holocaust that is!!

I mostly agree but what will become of the PC? I don't think PC gaming will disappear. The main consoles might become extinct but as long as you need a PC to develop the games on, it makes no sense not to release on there.

 

[ic1male]

LOL, now half an hour after you wrote your post, Microsoft announce Game Pass games are coming to Project xCloud. So there you have your all-you-can-eat Netflix for Games service which surely knock the wind out of Stadia.

 

[ic1male]

Not really, the main point of Stadia is you're renting online access to a high-spec PC. If I could do that and have access to Steam it'd be very tempting.

have you heard of Shadow.tech?