Again those linux builds are locally executable , the source code just makes room to run in a distributed calculation mode where multiple computers / CPUs / GPUs share the load evenly .
The hardware would be there , since their hardware is nothing more than beefy X86 computers (and again in Linux X86 is X86 server grade or not ) , and software library wise google didn't reinvent the wheel for the local execution mode , so once again anyone with an up to date Ubuntu already rocks those very same library the only thing we are missing is their libraries for the distributed calculationn mode (which again is a mode we wouldn't be running it in , in on a local execution context so not having them is a non issue ) ...
Well, some people have this piece of hardware called a "Personal Computer" that can run video games locally. Apparently even some console manufacturers are in on that option :P.
If Google did a really good job on latency, no, the choices are few. There is Shadow, Pascal, Nvidia, and couple others but they are much more expensive and they do have latency issues. That said, those services do let you bring your own game library.
I have friends that worked on those builds .The Stadia version before going on the back end part of the infrastructure of google has been tested locally the only caveat for Linux gamers is accepting to run that sucker on an AMD GPU (the GPUs they chose to go with on their Stadia servers - so during dev they didn't tested those suckers in a local execution context with an Nvidia card ) but yeah if you have an AMD GPU and Ubuntu installed, just run that sucker in local execution mode and you're golden .
Why wouldn't they be able to afford it? They already have to give the publisher/developer of the game money for every copy of their game they sell on stadia. Surely it wouldn't be a big deal for the pubs to throw in another key for a local stadia launcher.
One-machine configuration does not equal "viable for release" to home-PC market. That's before factoring in the costs of tech-support and distribution for the extra platform.
I'm talking about locally downloading the PC version of the game on your own PC, not on the streaming hardware.
That's why I talked about going the extra mile , which is to say to further beta test on other configurations , but they're making a linux native version anyway already so why not going a bit further to also get some butter from the Linux gaming crowd .
Then Sony and MS will kill Stadia, because they have the ability to offer this without any renegotiation, PLUS they have exclusive titles.
I understand what it is perfectly well. At the end of the day, how they're wording their message can only do so much to obfuscate the core issue: They expect you to pay $60 for a game, just like on any other platform. Anyone deciding to take the plunge and start shifting their gaming onto stadia instead of consoles or PC, and buy games exclusively on there, will have to deal with a lot of shortcomings and inherent downsides of the platform.
