Vapourware Google Stadia - "a game streaming service for everyone"

[DalekFlay]

I think that was a poor video, but I also don't think it matters. Once the service expands to everywhere with free trial everyone's going to try it and the typical convenience factors will take hold.

 

[Jenkem]

https://projectstream.google.com/speedtest

 

[cw8]

Thank goodness this streaming crap is not available in Asia. Paying monthly fees to play single-player games. Fuck off. It can't die soon enough.

 

[DalekFlay]

https://projectstream.google.com/speedtest

I live right outside a major East coast US city and get 300 Mbps but when I watch 4k video from Netflix or Amazon I still get lots of compression artifacts in the blacks and occasional resolution drops. I'll believe this magical low latency pristine picture PR speak when I fucking see it.

 

[deuxhero]

"a game streaming service for everyone" reminds me of that Saint's Row II radio ad "being fabulous is a lifestyle that anyone can achieve, assuming you're not poor".

 

[Alpan]

This is going to be a disaster of a very slow variety, though obviously the casual gamer will gain greatly in convenience. The price though will not be limited to ownership: When the target hardware for a developer stops being the game console or an average PC but the near-infinite processing power of Google's datacenters, we'll essentially be facing a Google monopoly on game development and choice of gaming platform.

 

[deuxhero]

Any indications of what kind of hardware the actual box has? Since softmodding it and playing old emulators on it is all it will be good for in a year or two after launch.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Yikes, all of the games are awful.. Plus they're already available on steam and you can get them for like $4 by buying cd keys. That said, if they get enough developers to put games on the platform they'll kill off consoles, which is a good thing

 

[unfairlight]

Wait, so it's upfront plus subscription PLUS HAVE TO PURCHASE THE GAMES? Thank god, I was worried this might actually take off.

No, subscription gives access to a selection of games like Microsoft's Game Pass thing, but you can alternatively just buy the games alone.
I'm not gonna use it anyway because I don't like subscription services, but this could be huge. Availability is too small, though.

 

[The Decline]

Any indications of what kind of hardware the actual box has? Since softmodding it and playing old emulators on it is all it will be good for in a year or two after launch.

It's just a chromecast. It can do absolutely nothing except stream video.

 

[toro]

First Stadia exclusive because EpicStore exclusivity affair worked so well.

 

[unfairlight]

What a deep metaphor for bullying. If only women actually got bullied, fucking lol.

 

[Xor]

No, subscription gives access to a selection of games like Microsoft's Game Pass thing, but you can alternatively just buy the games alone.

Well, you can until google decides you're guilty of wrongthink, bans you, and takes your games with them. You're not actually buying a game, you're buying the right to use it on a streaming service. It's essentially a permanent rental.

I can see so many ways for this to go wrong and I hope it fails, but the gaming market is very different today than it was when OnLive tried this, plus alphabet has basically unlimited money to waste on bad ideas, so there's actually a decent chance that this sticks around.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Games cant possibly be priced at full price on Stadia. No offline play, always on DRM, no mods, no physical copy, if they arent at a heavy discount most people wont buy... most sane people at least.

 

[Plaguecrafter]

Games cant possibly be priced at full price on Stadia. No offline play, always on DRM, no mods, no physical copy, if they arent at a heavy discount most people wont buy... most sane people at least.

You underestimate people's spending habits.

 

[taxalot]

The only possible way Stadia becomes a net advantage for gamers is if the game is also availalble offline on your computer if you buy it on Stadia : that way, you have a copy of the game you can run on your own machine if it has the specs, and if it doesn't YET have the specs you can play it on Stadia while waiting for the money to get an upgrade.

I would be into this, for a correct price. But it's never going to happen.

In the meantime, I'm fine with Playstation Now which is an actual cheap "Gaming netflix", something Stadia has already failed to achieve.

 

[abija]

What do you mean? From my understanding it also includes a Playstation Now equivalent.

 

[ZeniBot]

Oh Look its shit! And no one was surprised.
You know you fucked up when Bethesda and Ubisoft are your flagship developers.

 

[DalekFlay]

Games cant possibly be priced at full price on Stadia. No offline play, always on DRM, no mods, no physical copy, if they arent at a heavy discount most people wont buy... most sane people at least.

Just like with downloads, the distribution method doesn't really change development costs much. Also you're paying for the servers, and benefiting from the convenience and shit which is the whole selling point of the endeavor. No way "purchases" on there won't be the same exact price as everywhere else.

 

[commie]

Oh Look its shit! And no one was surprised.
You know you fucked up when Bethesda and Ubisoft are your flagship developers.

Actually I wouldn't include Ubisoft there. They don't really do RPG's (except their curious MMX foray, and maybe now the way Ass Creed is evolving into ARPG), and the shit they peddle doesn't encroach on the things I like. Conversely, I still enjoy their creation of historical sites and cities(sure, a lot of Hollywood 'sword and sandals' naivette), but it shows they actually tried to make an effort to appeal to some historical reality, and the huge expense to do so, when most gamers wouldn't really give a shit about it anyway. Ubisoft stuff is what I like to boot up when I just want to clear some icons on a map in short sessions, and it's fine for that.

 

[JarlFrank]

convenience

lol, in my view this whole idea is the most inconvenient thing ever

Then again I don't really have mainstream views on convenience, so.

 

[Volrath]

convenience

lol, in my view this whole idea is the most inconvenient thing ever

Then again I don't really have mainstream views on convenience, so.

We know.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Games cant possibly be priced at full price on Stadia. No offline play, always on DRM, no mods, no physical copy, if they arent at a heavy discount most people wont buy... most sane people at least.

Why would they be priced at full retail price when the whole point of this thing is to be over 10x cheaper to get into than a console and simpler.

There's a precedent already for brand new AAA game stream pricing: Resident Evil 7 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey launched as stream-only games for the Nintendo Switch in Japan at a cost of 20$ for 3 months (with season pass/dlcs included). Switch games retail for 60$+. If a nintendo switch gamer wanted to instead "own" a copy of those games to run locally the alternative would cost him at least a few hundred bucks as he'd have to buy a console capable of running it.

The first real case for Stadia (and/or amazon's solution) will be made when the new consoles launch and Johnny McCasual who hasn't jumped aboard a new console generation until it's priced for less than 300$ with a game is confronted with a nextgen game he really wants (RDR2 remaster, GTA6, Assassins Creed Diversity or whatever) and the choice of:

- spend 500$ for the ps5/xo console at launch + 60-70$ for the game + 60$ for the sub that gives multiplayer access
- wait 2-3 years until the cheaper slim revision of the next gen consoles pop out (and he's sure which console is actually "better") and then only pay 300$+ 20$ for a used game copy+ 60$ for multiplayer access
- Pay google 10-20$ for one or several months of streaming access to the same game as soon as the new generation launches

Well, you can until google decides you're guilty of wrongthink, bans you, and takes your games with them. You're not actually buying a game, you're buying the right to use it on a streaming service. It's essentially a permanent rental.

Nothing new since 2004. And yet most pc gamers will still buy the same game on steam/uplay/whatever instead of gog as long as it's cheaper, or simply more convenient to them.

 

[DalekFlay]

lol, in my view this whole idea is the most inconvenient thing ever

Then again I don't really have mainstream views on convenience, so.

You don't think the Netflix generation will see value in playing their games anytime, on any screen, with zero box or hardware involved? Of course they will, it'll be massive if Google can make it feel "right" (which is a big if). I personally have no interest in it for a variety of reasons, same as you, but we're not the target market.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Back at GDC, Google demonstrated that Stadia games would be playable on Chromecasts, Chrome OS devices, and Pixel phones.

O shit, this is pretty big. Basically stadia is free on any device that runs chrome OS, you just download the app. The $60 chromecast is only required if your device doesn't have one built in, but lots of smart tvs these days have them.

So it's like, a free console. Again if they can get more developers behind it this will totally kill off xbox and playstation, which would be awesome because fuck those consoles. Unfortunately I doubt nintendo would ever put their games on this, and nintendo is really the only console developer these days that makes ok games.