Agreed, Stadia will take off much much faster than Netflix.
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Google formally unveils the "Stadia" launching in 2019
- Thread starter BAD
- Start date
Not only do i want everything for free, but i will require a Universal Basic Income to play 16 hours a day and pay my internet.
First wave based on last night's presentation seems to only be encompassing US/Canada and EU/UK.
Considering how long it takes for google products to make its way here (still no official Chromcast 4k ugh) I don't expect to see this for a while, even if we do have a local data center and regional office here.
Yeah I'm 99% sure they mentioned that with the city destruction demo.
Honestly a lot of people in here are short-sighted. We haven't even seen what can be done with this tech in mind. What if Google decides to flex nuts and allocate 10 instances/user for all their first party games?
Really? Minimum doesn't make sense. Something like this requires efficiency, and an indie game wouldn't need that much power. Although I suppose a game can request multiple instances. You're right, never mind.
Because it adds a lot of value and losing that would be a huge cultural loss. It doesn't have to be like that just like we don't have to live in a world with any of the things we value, like, and enjoy. But I rather live in a better world than a worse one.
Because that relies on the benevolence of devs and decision makers. The reason modding is so vibrant and accomplishes so many things from extending games, creating derivative works, preserving and patching games for modern hardware and so on is because modding doesn't depend on license owners and developers. It's nice when they appreciate the work of modders and provide them with documentation and tools but the reason what I am talking about is so important is the case where they don't do that or even worse are against modifications and that happens to be the case with the majority of games. I don't get how that is so hard to understand.
The problem is that people who play Solitaire or Candy Crash don't care about AA/AAA gaming at all. Why would they pay money for something they don't need.
Out of curiosity I booted a GCP VM in Sydney and pinged it from a Melbourne location. The result is as follows:
Of course network situation varies from location to location so the image really does not mean much :( Also, it seems that GCPing.com uses a f1-micro instance, which is the smallest (and cheapest) VM class GCP offers; it uses only 0.2 vCPU cores, my guess is that when under (relatively) heavy traffic the performance maybe be impacted.
That's a far better test result but you've got that VM doing nothing and as you say not indicative of an end user on an ISP connection pinging from Melbourne to Stadia.
I guess mine is a real world test. Out of curiosity I've disconnect from Telstra and connected to Optus mobile/cellphone hotspot which is 30Kms from Melbourne city using an active 4G LTE connection. This is 4.30PM Australian time so it's literally after school wireless and wired tested, used multiple browsers including Chrome (as below). 50ms one way on 4G LTE. Now 5G will move that closer to 10-25ms one way but it's far from stable like a wired connection.
I could also connect to iiNet ADSL 2+ for comparison if I really wanted but I already know the real world answer.
The best scenario is Stadia collocate game servers doing the workload and direct response within major Australian states to reduce that latency to something acceptable. Anything less and it's not going to be useable for fighting games or FPS etc.
Blue ocean, baby! They're hoping that something easy and seamless like this will attract the Candy Crush crowd to bigger games.
There'd be no point because there is no hardware. Publishers could just spin up the exact same thing on Amazon and take 100% of the cut and Google adds nothing. It can only make sense as a all-you-can stream sub because then they can get players through volume since most publishers can't make it on their own (even that statement is a stretch as everyone knows what happened with apps, tv shows, music and PC games if you don't own your own destiny, they will try).
well, obviously this is for the casual gamers that do play AAA games
I'm vaguely interested in giving this a shot. Wouldn't mind playing some games at work during the down time.
The upcoming generation of kids who find the idea of a big "Play this game right now" button next to their YouTube video to be completely intuitive and normal.
Yeah exactly, you're going to have a generation of kids who find this completely normal.
Platform holders.
I can see streaming hurting PC gamers more than console gamers. Where developers stop actively releasing PC versions of their games and you have to use one of the streaming platforms to play on your PC. All in the name of stopping piracy. I know piracy still happens on consoles, but it's not as easy as downloading a repack and clicking "next", "next", "install".
They already do this:
Why they need another sub?
This except it's not in the name of stopping piracy(drm was never about that), it's about controlling the media player because if you do that there's gold at the end of the rainbow. When you own the data centers, the internet infrastructure, the software stack and the client you get to tax everyone at every stage of that pipeline and the more they use your platform the more everyone becomes dependent on it. This moves all control into the hands of platform holders.
True as well, stopping piracy would be nice a bonus for them too.
"Wow poodiepoo played this game I wanna play and there's a play now button, and poodiepoo is saying if I click that button I'll be supporting him!? ok poodiepoo I'm clicking the play now button!"
that's the end game. Having 'influencers' play a game, with a 'play now' button in the corner, with them pushing their audience to play or try it out in the end.
Ah okay I see what you're saying. I think there are plenty of people out there who are interested in playing AAA games but not enough to commit to buying a console. This will make AAA gaming infinitely more accessible to casual audiences.
This is going to be big. Like the next big thing definitely. Just like Netflix changed the way people watch movie/tv, this will change the way people play games. Even though I already have a pretty good pc + PS4 Pro I will definitely sign up for this service. Just the idea of not having to buy a next gen console but still get to play the games nearly as good as the real thing is quite exciting.
Well, that's one important information that's not covered in the OP yet. What a bummer.
Stadia requires specific hardware. It's not going to magically work on every Google data center out there, they need to be specifically equipped for it. Therefore it's going to face the same availability issues as everyone else.
And even when there's no special server-side hardware needed, Google is still fucking terrible at deployment overall. So many Google services and products launch as US only, and then maybe eventually trickle down elsewhere. Stadia is only going to be worse at this.
I get you, and I am not trying to doom n gloom on this model before we even know what it is, how it works, and have seen its effects. I mean, I guess I was doing exactly that, but mea culpa and we'll see.
How do you judge success?
Making money? Sure, Google are good at that
Pushing more people to youtube? Yep
Further plunging the world into a right wing fantasy state of hate and violence? Yeah probably
Consolidating the games industry into one or two generic online experiences designed to keep you playing and paying endlessly? Seems likely
Producing new and exciting single player games that you can buy, enjoy and then move onto something else? Success does not seem assured.
If that really is the case, I think this is a pretty misleading comparison.
Those are insane numbers for something run locally, and comparing against something so already unusually laggy means you get no real idea of what the typical streaming latency overhead actually would be when the local engine latency matches more closely.
They need to sell you anything, that's the point. The barriers to entry have been eliminated.
Sadly, I'll have to agree with you. I think it will be big too. Look at Netflix and Spotify. I know video games are a different medium, but those services are huge. They appeal to the I have to have everything at my fingertips crowd. It's too good to pass up. I think the only thing that could keep it from being big is the cost of the subscription. Most people have gotten used to paying 5-15 dollars for a sub, if it's higher than those numbers I think most people won't bother.
What gaming subscription(s) do people already tied to nowadays?
Yup.
Here's the thing. It's not that the mainstream audience don't want to play AAA games, it's all about the barrier to entry. If they want to play the newest Assassin's Creed game, they need to invest $300 for a console, and additional $60 for the game. With Stadia, they don't need to buy another hardware. They only need a monthly subscription to play the game on their phone/tablet/TV that the mainstream already have at their possession. It's all about ease of use and price point.
Not for the average Resetera user (like me) who already owns a console and/or gaming PC.
Google isn't trying to get PS4/NSW/X1/PC gamers to switch, they are targeting those who don't play AAA games yet.
Stadia might be interesting for some of my friends, though. Mid 30s, married, kids, jobs, house, other hobbies than gaming etc.
They do love to play some FIFA or COD every now and then but don't want to commit time and money for a gaming system they use every now and then. If they were able to buy a gamepad plus like 50€ for a 3 months subscription and would get to play FIFA on their Android TV, they would consider it at least.
Heck, I moved into a new house in January and with all the time and money that eats up, I'm honestly not sure if I'm willing/able to spend like 700€ (assuming 500€ console, 60€ 2nd controller and two games to get me started) when the PS5 drops.
Crazy that this is releasing in 2019. Not sure what to expect from it commercially, could see it being a monstrous success or a total failure. It's almost impossible to predict. I think if they price it right it could be very well though.
Not really my cup of tea though. I hate subscriptions, don't really like playing online and generally prefer physical media.
Not really my cup of tea though. I hate subscriptions, don't really like playing online and generally prefer physical media.
Like a lot of people is saying this is (on a basic premise level) giving you all the bells and whistle of 4K HDR max setting gaming, without the sunk cost of buying a brand new console or gaming PC, and can (with caveats) be played on any screen. That premise is appealing not just to casual gamers but also to hardcore players that don't necessarily want to shell out for that.
This has the potential to be a major game changer. After sleeping on it, I feel very frustrated. I was in the beta, but couldn't get Oydessy to work properly due to the constant stuttering lag. I live in a rural area, and my frustration is that this is becoming a huge disparity between those gamers who will have access, and those who won't. I want the option to decide if this is a service I want, or not. But, unfortunately that won't happen. I know that there are others who share in my frustration. It just really blows.
So basically "Imagine something like crackdown but with cloud processing?"
Yeah the negativity is the amusing thing here.
Google added Stadia support for joycons and pro controllers, I wonder if this means Stadia support will be available for the Switch YouTube app...
If they make this work for relatively (!) Slow internet, PC download platforms will have a problem. I don't even remember the last time I actually bought a CD on store, or a disc based movie.
That's a big if though.
That's a big if though.
Yikes.
All those negativity can't be healthy.
I was just making an offhand comment about Era's poor track record regarding new product launches.
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Think this will be a huge point of contention for platform owners on whether they want to enable such a service on their boxes. Honestly I see it working out really well for the Switch as a complementary offering.
Also not to mention, PS and Xbox are more than likely to do something similar with PSNow and Xcloud next generation.