[Closed] Google Stadia - 4k steaming gaming. What do you reckon?

I like the idea, I also like that it’ll reduce your at home power consumption and reduce waste. But - my internet connection is >50mbps, and even on that, latency can be bad on the PS4. Unless google own the complete end-end infrastructure, I think it might be difficult to make it work well for everyone in the UK.

I’d be keen if it works well.

The Xbox One X is still £400 despite (supposedly) being near end of life, add in a £6 a month cost to actually play online and this seems a better solution for what’s effectively a constantly evolving virtual games machine.

If the tech works then it spells an end to the hardware arms and it fits in with the new “everything as a service” the way the world is going.

If I were only if the existing players I’d be worried, they seem to have bet heavily on getting a least one more gen out of the current market.

I like the idea, I also like that it’ll reduce your at home power consumption and reduce waste. But – my internet connection is >50mbps, and even on that, latency can be bad on the PS4. Unless google own the complete end-end infrastructure, I think it might be difficult to make it work well for everyone in the UK.

The way I’ve got my head around it is that it’s like a Cloud Server with RDS, all the data is being dealt with at source, it’s just the imagine/sound being transferred, it should mean it works better than online gaming at the moment.

I used to be a huge fan of gaming and recently got hold of a switch. With Zelda and the Indy games on the store it has fast become my all time favourite console. Art style, interesting gameplay and mechanics trump snazzy visuals every time for me now.

I’ll wait til my BiL inevitably gets it and see what it’s like. I think I became very jaded with online gaming and the fact that developers can’t really afford to take risks with games anymore due to the costs involved.

I don't see how it can work when in-house streaming for PC to TV via Steam link doesn't even work reliably.

I reckon it'll be steaming.

Sorry, nothing positive to contribute.

£119 plus £8.99 subscription (subscription if you want 4k steaming)

The £119 is for the official controller, but it will work with any controllers or with keyboard/mouse. So, you can play on any device running Chrome.

Not getting this really- it'll ship with Destiny2, which is the only confirmed included game, Google say it'll have a storefront and you'll have to purchase games- no word yet of any other 'free' titles- and until they open up the free tier (not 4k) sometime in 2020 you'll need to keep on paying the subscription if you want to keep playing.

Interesting BBC article below, looking at how the business model might work and warning that we could end up with either constant loot boxes or game mechanics that prioritise long play times over content.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47634263

I like that the tech exists and some of the other subscription services offer pretty good value for the variety of games on offer (e.g. Xbox game pass).

What I don't like is the way it threatens the availability of older games - we already see this with publishers shutting down online games with minimal notice and no recourse for having a product you've paid for taken away.

Purchasing games on Steam already feels like tenuous ownership at times but at least you have the data locally where it can be cracked or updated by the developers if necessary. It's hard to have faith that anything bought through Stadia will be available in the long term when we see games disappearing from sale due to licensing agreements, servers being shut down once they're no longer profitable, and Google especially being notorious for ending services that don't take off.

There have been a few cracks at this before, and pretty much all have fallen down at latency. Maybe its time with more FTTC FTTP available. It certainly makes sense to centralise the hardware and just own the clicky bit but I reckon it'll be a lagfest... can't see twitch games working.

Why's XBox live £6 a month? Think I pay about £30 a year on a cdkey ..

I'm putting money on PS4 remote play being available on a mobile network soon, killing this on the spot.

I've finally got decent broadband. If you can use any Chrome enabled device it might be worth a trial.

Streaming 4k video isn't the trickey bit, from what I understand.
The latency will come in where you make a controll pad input, like pressing a button, that input has to reach the remote server, the game and the hardware it's running on will then need to process the input and then broadcast an updated screen frame back to your chrome cast and then on to your TV to display the action you just did on the controll pad.

I can't see it being very high frame rate/resolution without massive lag.

I'm unclear how the costings will work (not to mention too ignorant to understand the technology!).

Bit of a Google fan, but from their email, it's not clear what I'll get for my £8.99 per month, other than the one game, Destiny 2.

More free games become available after launch, which may or may not be ok.

It doesn't give any idea how much it will cost to 'buy' games that I actually want e.g. Call of Duty.

Would I end up paying a subscription to every game, rather than the idea of buying outright, as per Xbox or PlayStation.

All a bit unclear for me to be willing to commit my money now.

That said, they are throwing in a 4k Chromecast, so £70 of the £119 gives you something to keep whatever.

Will keep a weather eye on the idea.

Given the costs I suspect very few decent games will be included with the sub, after all they’re providing most of the hardware, intact it seems you can BYO controllers, the subs are for the infrastructure. I’d bet, at start anyway you’ll need to buy games outright - like iTunes, you buy a song, film or TV show and it’s yours to stream / download to your hearts content.

Later on they may offer games SaaS, but the platform does lend itself to lootbox games like Fortnite and even ad laden app style games.

Interesting times for sureZ

If they can keep latency down

This is the main sticking point for me - some games will be fine but others like FPS games will be a nightmare with 20ms+ controller lag