[VG247] Google Stadia is the future of gaming, whether you like it or not

[PucePikmin]

Well, certainly there are powerful forces that want this to be the future. We'll see if it actually happens. Google shot their shot and missed the target. I dunno...this is a wider issue, but I'm increasingly feeling like there's going to be a societal backlash to this "everything will be bought online, all entertainment will be streamed" future we're being sold. I don't know what 5, 10 years in the future will look like. Maybe we'll all be in the throes of climate change hysteria and only playing with wooden cups and balls. Who the hell knows?

 

[Deleted member 18944]

Thing is Microsoft and Sony are still going to sell Playstations and Xboxes and I think that will become a key selling point of their services honestly. They can market their ecosystems as "Play your way" and highlight the fact that they can do streaming as well as physical and local downloads.

For instance, I'm more comfortable subscribing to xCloud knowing that any games I buy I'll be able to download to an Xbox or a PC. The loss of ownership doesn't occur with MS solution and I think that will help drive its success.

Streaming may become the dominant option in the future (who really knows?) But hardware isn't going to go away. Stadia is going nowhere and will serve as a cautionary tale for the streaming business

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I think ultimately it will come down to how fleshed out these systems are by the end of the next generation. I mean we could really get to that point where majority of titles are streamed and the hardware offered is only for the streaming.

This is in my opinion the next big thing. When Apple came out with the first iPhone, tons of people were like "lol no one will use this" etc etc. And they literally brought into life the smartphone market.

I'm not saying Stadia is on that level. They are more like the PDAs that sucked that inspired Apple to make the iPhone. Microsoft is absolutely viewing the launch and what is wrong with it and making sure they get it right, cause if they do, they will have something game changing.

 

[RingRang]

Game streaming is the future just like VR was going to be the future a few years ago. Both are interesting technologies that can do some really neat things, but I don't see any reason why either is going to dominate the gaming landscape anytime soon. Even 10 years from now.

 

[Dekuman]

Well, certainly there are powerful forces that want this to be the future. We'll see if it actually happens. Google shot their shot and missed the target. I dunno...this is a wider issue, but I'm increasingly feeling like there's going to be a societal backlash to this "everything will be bought online, all entertainment will be streamed" future we're being sold. I don't know what 5, 10 years in the future will look like. Maybe we'll all be in the throes of climate change hysteria and only playing with wooden cups and balls. Who the hell knows?

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When Google shuts down stadia and consumers.lose their purchases, there will be backlash from that as well.

Even stuff.like digital services Ultraviolet shutting down has soured people and reminds them stuff we are promised / gifted digitally aren't permanent

 

[Deleted member 13645]

Is there really some huge population out there of people who are into gaming but are unwilling to buy a console? I keep seeing the companies say they want to tap into that market, but i'm skeptical that can actually happen. People who are interested in games find ways to play them. People who are only interested in, say, mobile games probably aren't looking for a console experience on their phone. I play a phone game because I want a bite-sized experience that I can play for 20 minutes, i'm not looking to dig into God of War or something in that time. I'm sure there's a market out there to tap into, but I find it hard to believe there's a vast number of people who won't/can't buy a $300 console but would be hype to use this.

 

[riotous]

This is in my opinion the next big thing. When Apple came out with the first iPhone, tons of people were like "lol no one will use this" etc etc. And they literally brought into life the smartphone market.

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Who in their right mind was saying this? That opinion certainly wasn't anywhere near as rampant as anti-streaming game angst.

 

[SlipperyMoose]

I think the technology is certainly the future. Every other form of media and content has gone digital. It's the natural progression of things wether we like it or not.

 

[SturokBGD]

Who in their right mind was saying this? That opinion certainly wasn't anywhere near as rampant as anti-streaming game angst.

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Bryan.

EDIT: no wait, Bryan's nuts.

 

[SomeoneSomewhere]

MP games and streaming. Hell nah.

 

[Heshinsi]

It's not going to be a future anytime soon, what with the state of broadband speeds and coverage in places like the United States. Hasan Minhaj has an episode of the Patriot Act focused on how shit the internet many American receive are.

 

[Secretofmateria]

Oh well if the verge says so it must be true, thank you "the verge" for spreading your knowledge unto us unwashed masses. May we one day reach the level of intellectual nirvana that you have

 

[Pai Pai Master]

how many of these pieces is Google paying for

 

[Meatwad]

I think ultimately it will come down to how fleshed out these systems are by the end of the next generation. I mean we could really get to that point where majority of titles are streamed and the hardware offered is only for the streaming.

This is in my opinion the next big thing. When Apple came out with the first iPhone, tons of people were like "lol no one will use this" etc etc. And they literally brought into life the smartphone market.

I'm not saying Stadia is on that level. They are more like the PDAs that sucked that inspired Apple to make the iPhone. Microsoft is absolutely viewing the launch and what is wrong with it and making sure they get it right, cause if they do, they will have something game-changing.

Click to shrink...

Absolutely, I think the key for companies getting into streaming is the value proposition. I think what drove services like Netflix and Spotify to mainstream success is that they identified the value proposition.

I think MS is currently in the best position of everybody because of Gamepass. I think that will be a killer app for MS streaming ambitions.

 

[Parcas]

Is just a 10-20 years down the road future not 5 next years future

 

[Hybrid Rainbow]

The day Stadia wins, there will coronations, rivers and nations, Mars will have civilizations.

 

[Harlequin]

Streaming is the future of gaming. Stadia? Well, a bit too early to say.

 

[DailyCalmSpirit]

Having flashbacks to the end of last generation when all these sites told us that mobile gaming would end consoles.

Yet, here we are.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

Who in their right mind was saying this? That opinion certainly wasn't anywhere near as rampant as anti-streaming game angst.

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People Who Thought The Original iPhone Was Going To Fail
Before going through the list, it's worth noting that the people who didn't exactly believe in the iPhone range from respected tech journalists to Apple's competitors in the industry.

Now here's a list of the people who thought the iPhone was going to be a flop:

TechCrunch's Seth Porges: "We predict the iPhone will bomb," he said.

In his defense, the reasons why he thought the original iPhone was bad make for some pretty valid points, especially back then.

Ad Age's Al Ries: "The iPhone will be a major disappointment ... An iPod is a divergence device; an iPhone is a convergence device. There's a big difference between the two. In the high-tech world, divergence devices have been spectacular successes. But convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures," he said.

Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn: "The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks."

The Guardian's Jemima Kiss: "Apple's much-anticipated iPhone ... will struggle to break into the mainstream because of a lack of a 3G connection and low demand for converged devices, according to research," she said.

Just to be clear, she didn't say that the iPhone would fail. She's merely reporting research findings, but this was included in the list to emphasize the consensus at the time.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item," he told USA Today.

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https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...ght-the-original-iphone-was-going-to-fail.htm

There were tons of articles and people saying that it would bomb and I would argue that sentiment was much larger than "game streaming isn't the future.

Absolutely, I think the key for companies getting into streaming is the value proposition. I think what drove services like Netflix and Spotify to mainstream success is that they identified the value proposition.

I think MS is currently in the best position of everybody because of Gamepass. I think that will be a killer app for MS streaming ambitions.

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Absolutely agree with this.

 

[Deleted member 51691]

Streaming may be the future, but Stadia is not, at least in its current state.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Streaming may well be the future but Im not to confident it will be through stadia.
I think stadia will evolve into a cloud gaming service for publishers and platforms to put out there own cloud gaming services. It will also be an extended advertising service, through YouTube.

 

[Heromanz]

Not in America. So many isp have bs data caps. Like Comcast for example I have a 1 terabyte limit and if I go over the limit I have to pay 30 bucks every 10 gigs.

 

[Dr. Ludwig]

When ISPs get their heads out of their asses.

Probably. Maybe... LOL As if that will ever fucking happen.

 

[Sqrt]

image quality makes it feel like some kind of witchcraft.

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I agree. Serious sorcery must have been used to make a Vega 56 perform universally worse than an XBX.

 

[MrChillaxx]

If tomorrow all companies decided they wont release games anymore as disc or dd and just offered streaming for their future titles i'd most likely stop playing anything but full story games, even if the prices were amazing.

It's simply not worth the annoyance of dealing with input lag and it's not gonna get sorted out in our lifetimes so yeah, howaboutno vg247

 

[Arkaign]

In the early days of integrated GPUs, they were supposedly going to make dedicated ones obsolete. Which is a wildly unrealistic expectation on its face for as long as physics and progress exist. IGPU improve, but not beyond the pace of dGPUs, and the gap between them remains fairly steady. You can only put so much on a die and power/cool/feed it bandwidth.

With Streaming, yes, it CAN compare moderately ok under extremely ideal conditions to somewhat laggy 30-60fps AAA console 7th-8th gen without VRR. It can also quickly fall short of that if even minor disruption happens with the internet connection quality.

Now the moving target part of the scenario will occur if 9th gen delivers considerably improved response time, more 60fps as a baseline, and perhaps most critically thanks to new HDMI standards : support for ULL/VRR TVs with HDMI 2.0b/2.1+ support.

Consumers at one point accepted ~10-15fps 3d games (Starfox/Stunt FX lol). That's no longer something that will fly in the larger market. I believe PS5 and Scarlett will push expectations for many beyond the current status quo. As for why I believe this, after using Gsync and HRR low latency gaming on PC, it is really REALLY hard to go back unless there is no alternative. I'll happily play a PS or Nintendo exclusive if the game is good enough, but anything multiplatform feels monumentally superior on VRR/HRR. And j believe the specs of the 9th gen twins will deliver better framerate than any previous gen while also supporting native VRR for new TVs. Some are already out!

 

[SneakersSO]

some of my favorite genres, like competitive fighting games, won't work in a streaming format for forever. There are numerous other examples where this holds true.

If the industry ever tried to force a big change in both ownership and playability like this, then I might leave the hobby altogether. That being said, having streaming offered in tandem to the current gaming business models is absolutely what will happen - heck, we've had this with OnLive and PS Now for forever.

 

[canseesea]

If Stadia is the future of games, that sure explains why I'm not hearing shit about it from any actual people in the present.

 

[Yogi]

MP games and streaming. Hell nah.

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You know how consoles could get around this - a focus on 144hz multiplayer. Might push new tvs too. Well maybe not get around...maybe like just hanging in there before passing the hardware over to AMD and Nvidia. Yeah...nvm.

Let's see how good streaming gets for multiplayer. I don't think it will be for a while. MP's not everyone's interest though.

 

[riotous]

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...ght-the-original-iphone-was-going-to-fail.htm

There were tons of articles and people saying that it would bomb and I would argue that sentiment was much larger than "game streaming isn't the future.

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Interesting thanks.

I do recall a lot of people not wanting to abandon physical keyboards, I was one of them.. but that's different from predicting failure for something that was basically a sci-fi dream device for decades.

 

[Yasumi]

The zealotry is strong in this article. Some people *really* seem to want Stadia to be a thing.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

Not in America. So many isp have bs data caps. Like Comcast for example I have a 1 terabyte limit and if I go over the limit I have to pay 30 bucks every 10 gigs.

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When ISPs get their heads out of their asses.

Probably. Maybe... LOL As if that will ever fucking happen.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad you lot brought this up, because I actually have a theory behind this.

Since I believe game streaming will be fleshed out within this next generation, and then continue to be widely adopted, I think one of two things will happen for ISPs.

Packages are offered that allow game streaming with zero caps.

The immense pressure to lift caps from companies who do game streaming and consumers gets to a boiling point and ISPs either lift the cap, offer the streaming service as an exception, or in Google's case, they simply fast track their plan to build out their own infrastructure to offer people no caps.

 

[Heromanz]

I'm glad you lot brought this up, because I actually have a theory behind this.

Since I believe game streaming will be fleshed out within this next generation, and then continue to be widely adopted, I think one of two things will happen for ISPs.

Packages are offered that allow game streaming with zero caps.

The immense pressure to lift caps from companies who do game streaming and consumers gets to a boiling point and ISPs either lift the cap, offer the streaming service as an exception, or in Google's case, they simply fast track their plan to build out their own infrastructure to offer people no caps.

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Or the isp will say no and ride in the money. Unless the feds step in they won't do shit.

 

[Alienous]

I doubt Stadia will be there when game streaming exists at the core of the industry - like OnLive it's a stepping stone.

I do think game streaming will take the place of consoles, due to them both targeting convince as the article highlights. Local hardware gaming will exist like having a 4K Blu-Ray player and projector set-up, vs. most people just watching a movie on Netflix. PC gaming or streaming is what I anticipate ~15 years or so from now.

 

[Charpunk]

Eventually every form of media is going to be streaming only. Not any time soon but eventually.

 

[Alucardx23]

Not Stadia necessarily, but cloud gaming in general will be the main way people play games in the future.

 

[ImaLawy3r]

The day that happens is when I will stop buying new videogames. Not owning the games in any physical format, or not having access to the files, is a big no to me.

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Where's the door to show you out...?

 

[ImaLawy3r]

there's a fundamental difference in not having access to game files vs streaming music and movies.

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Not for a lot of people.

 

[mordecaii83]

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...ght-the-original-iphone-was-going-to-fail.htm

There were tons of articles and people saying that it would bomb and I would argue that sentiment was much larger than "game streaming isn't the future.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, these predictions were based off a phone that didn't have 3G, was $500, and didn't have an app store. Apple quickly released a 3G variant, introduced the app store with iOS 2.0, and dropped the price not long after launch on the 8GB model by $200. I'd argue those predictions were actually not that crazy at the time.

 

[Alienous]

When ISPs get their heads out of their asses.

Probably. Maybe... LOL As if that will ever fucking happen.

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They're not going to bottleneck the profits of huge corporations forever. When Netflix & Disney want 8K streaming, and Microsoft, Google and Amazon want to grow game streaming, they're going to capitulate.

 

[GymWolf86]

If you say so...

 

[Deleted member 18944]

Interesting thanks.

I do recall a lot of people not wanting to abandon physical keyboards, I was one of them.. but that's different from predicting failure for something that was basically a sci-fi dream device for decades.

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Well remember that it is difficult for a lot of people to wrap their head around the idea that a service or a technology that is already incredible (video games) can become even better to a point where, as you said, people see it as some sci-fi dream that "while great in theory, doesn't work in reality."

Like all things, take the iPhone for example, time is the true factor in whether or not game streaming will be successful. It will truly depend on the service providers to not only break down barriers, but envy as much as possible to entice wide spread adoption.

 

[riotous]

I hate comparisons to movie/music streaming; those technologies can buffer. All you need is bandwidth, and you can have all kinds of hiccups and interruptions and maintain a steady stream.

Even with that said the user experience of streaming video is far from perfect, it's just acceptable because you aren't interacting with the content anyways, so a bit of a pause or quality drop is worth the extra convenience that streaming offers.

People keep yelling "5G will solve everything!" when even a home fiber connection isn't some perfect streaming experience 24x7, it's laughable to assume we'll have super reliable 5G connections. Better than 4G? Sure.

But look at this:

Oh so your local 5G tower has more than 700 people connected to it suddenly your packet loss starts rising upwards towards ~10%. That is absolutely going to cause problems for game streams. Oh and forget about gaming on the move; 5G relies on mesh networking and so you'll be switching towers quite often, and those tower switches are impossible to do seamlessly for game streaming.

And these types of issues are similar for all kinds of equipment; home routers for instance aren't exactly incredibly good at handling super demanding tasks when multiple people are trying to use a router. I did a test the other day for instance and my ping to google's datacenter went up by ~20ms when I was downloading a file on a second machine.

You might guess; "well the average person might not care".. yeah, maybe. But honestly, really? You are playing a game; WTF is more annoying than that game glitching out, causing fuckups for you, etc. It's like saying average people don't care if a game is buggy as shit, or randomly causes them to lose unfairly. And yeah this is already an issue for multiplayer gaming; but those games use client-side code to smooth the experience out. That is not feasible with a purely game streaming solution. The most popular games are the ones that handle people's glitchy connections the best and make it somewhat invisible to the user. That is absolutely impossible with game streaming, and it effects all gaming not just multiplayer.

 

[Arkaign]

They're not going to bottleneck the profits of huge corporations forever. When Netflix & Disney want 8K streaming, and Microsoft, Google and Amazon want to grow game streaming, they're going to capitulate.

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I'm not sure that's going to be a push from corporate leadership. 4k Netflix is a step down from a 1080p Bluray in AV quality, let alone 4k HDR BR.

And iTunes/MP3 have been stuck in pretty horrendous audio quality for like two decades, and streaming audio is even worse. No push for FLAC or 'HD' audio from the digital media providers whatsoever.

It's like McDonald's or Taco Bell : whatever is cheapest to produce and distribute for maximum profits, and will satisfy the largest but least discerning portion of the market.

 

[riotous]

Well remember that it is difficult for a lot of people to wrap their head around the idea that a service or a technology that is already incredible (video games) can become even better to a point where, as you said, people see it as some sci-fi dream that "while great in theory, doesn't work in reality."

Like all things, take the iPhone for example, time is the true factor in whether or not game streaming will be successful. It will truly depend on the service providers to not only break down barriers, but envy as much as possible to entice wide spread adoption.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I think everyone was on board with the idea of a "pocket computer"; I guess the idea of one that was only a touch screen was hard for some people to fathom. Easy to forget now I guess; I surely was apart of those discussions.. and hell for all I know I predicted it would fail lol

edit: And reading a bit closer; some were balking at the price.. which is totally understandable, and I remember that. But they underestimated people's willingness to pretend something was cheap because the cost was hidden in a monthly payment.

 

[Tuck]

Not anytime soon it's not.

 

[sora87]

Lmao no it's not.

 

[Alvis]

The future of games is where players are, and no amount of bought articles will change that.

 

[Fisty]

Whether you like it or not, they chose Phil Harrison so it wont be Stadia lol.

While streaming may become a dominant way to game, it wont be Stadia

 

[Arkaign]

I hate comparisons to movie/music streaming; those technologies can buffer. All you need is bandwidth, and you can have all kinds of hiccups and interruptions and maintain a steady stream.

Even with that said the user experience of streaming video is far from perfect, it's just acceptable because you aren't interacting with the content anyways, so a bit of a pause or quality drop is worth the extra convenience that streaming offers.

People keep yelling "5G will solve everything!" when even a home fiber connection isn't some perfect streaming experience 24x7, it's laughable to assume we'll have super reliable 5G connections. Better than 4G? Sure.

But look at this:

Oh so your local 5G tower has more than 700 people connected to it suddenly your packet loss starts rising upwards towards ~10%. Oh and forget about gaming on the move; 5G relies on mesh networking and so you'll be switching towers quite often, and those tower switches are impossible to do seamlessly for game streaming.

And these types of issues are similar for all kinds of equipment; home routers for instance aren't exactly incredibly good at handling super demanding tasks when multiple people are trying to use a router. I did a test the other day for instance and my ping to google's datacenter went up by ~20ms when I was downloading a file on a second machine.

You might guess; "well the average person might not care".. yeah, maybe. But honestly, really? You are playing a game; WTF is more annoying than that game glitching out, causing fuckups for you, etc. It's like saying average people don't care if a game is buggy as shit.

Click to shrink...

You have struck GOLD with that, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

I ran 5G tests in Waxahachie, TX and Atlanta, GA for a not-to-be-named entity. Let's just say it went poorly. The frequencies released by the FCC that have been earmarked for '5G' as it will exist in North America are some of the least ideal for the purpose you can imagine. The frequency ranges are incredibly affected by physical occlusion, weather, reflective signal noise, etc. And the range is just terrible. To have a decent coverage area, you need a VERY dense hive of PHYSICALLY fibre-connected 5G base stations in an ideal setup. You can do some air-to-air mesh with them in the absence of wired, but you pay a significant penalty in bandwidth and signal reliability.

Basically it's something that will work okayish IF 5G providers absolutely blanket an area in nodes AND don't oversell the nodes as well. Seeing how ISPs and cell companies regularly oversell/overprovision their networks as it is (more profit for less infrastructure investment! Yay!), I pretty much know what to expect there.

But rural/last mile? Hahahahahaha. No. Even many suburbs will be chock full of dead spots and rough signal noise. The frequency range is just awful for this.

 

[Dr J]

If Google stadia is the future of gaming then that's the day I will stop playing new video games