Stadia: Don’t cross the streams.

ChaosHat

So Google has been working on something and today we finally know what it is. Enter: STADIA. Stream your game from a google connected TV. Or from your Chrome browser.

You can use any controller, but of course Google will sell you one. It looks like this.



Apparently it will do 4K 60fps to start with plans to scale to 8K 120 fps.

Launches in 2019, no word on pricing yet, more news later this year.

I didn't see another thread on this anywhere. What do people think about streaming all their crap?

Stormwatcher

I don't know how well it's gonna work
but if there's one company with resources to make it happen, it's google.

a5ehren

The custom racks are Zen+ with Vega 56 baked in. Good target, probably similar to the next round of consoles.

ChaosHat

I'm personally kind of leery about paying money for games that I can't even really download. I know that's a thing with steam or whatever but given how often Google likes to abandon projects it's a little more ehhhhh.

Dehumanized

think i'm just gonna give this a pass for a year or two and see if google doesn't immediately abandon it first

Stormwatcher

Dehumanized wrote: »

think i'm just gonna give this a pass for a year or two and see if google doesn't immediately abandon it first

I thought about that too
but I don't recall making a presentation like that for the stuff the half-assed.

ChaosHat

Like Google totally has the cash to make this work. I'm thinking Microsoft with the Xbox, but I feel like Google is in an even better position now than MS was then, so this could work.

I love the idea of not having to upgrade my stuff periodically, could totally be a savings over the long haul. I can't even do 4K 60 FPS on my rig currently.

They just need to have the will.

ED!

. . .I just want to know how this works with data caps if at all.

And yeah, they have dropped a ton of projects that people care more about than streaming gaming.

ObiFett

This has the potential to change the game industry drastically.

Initial thoughts:

The video card industry will take a giant hit.

Google will be basically monetizing playing games by charging the devs by usage. Not games themselves. But actually playing games will be monetized. I'm not sure how developers change their pricing model for this.

Two major points of failure imo are (1) End user internet connection. I don't doubt Google has optimized their end better than anyone else could have. But there are two ends to this and any kind of internet problems on the users side means they have performance degredation. I have Google Fiber and sometimes can't get quality performance on Netflix. That would be bad for games. (2) The controller connects through wifi directly to the data center to control the games. This is bad, imo, since it prevents us from relying on hardwired connections that are almost always more reliable and faster.

Stormwatcher

I'm not worried about the Tech, google can throw money until it works

I'm not afraid of Stadia failing, I'm terrified of it being triumphant.

Polaritie

Yeah, I'm curious how they'll make this responsive enough for twitchier things. There's a hard limit on that (c) and US ISPs are utter shit to boot.

ChaosHat

ObiFett wrote: »

This has the potential to change the game industry drastically.

Initial thoughts:

The video card industry will take a giant hit.

Google will be basically monetizing playing games by charging the devs by usage. Not games themselves. But actually playing games will be monetized. I'm not sure how developers change their pricing model for this.

Two major points of failure imo are (1) End user internet connection. I don't doubt Google has optimized their end better than anyone else could have. But there are two ends to this and any kind of internet problems on the users side means they have performance degredation. I have Google Fiber and sometimes can't get quality performance on Netflix. That would be bad for games. (2) The controller connects through wifi directly to the data center to control the games. This is bad, imo, since it prevents us from relying on hardwired connections that are almost always more reliable and faster.

I think Google is guessing that most of the usage of this will be wifi streaming for the game in general so the controller streaming doesn't really add another crazy layer of failure.

TubularLuggage

I'm definitely wary about this for a few reasons. First, how will this work with less reliable/slower connections that a lot of people still have? What about data caps?
I'm also always very wary of the continued push by these companies to take ownership more and more out of the hands of people. How much control do we want to give these companies over what media we have access to?
Do you pay for individual games? Do you pay a subscription? If that latter, do developers get paid by the session? By play time?

You also have to start to wonder about antitrust. It's honestly pretty surprising that Google hasn't run up against that more. Honestly, I think they and a few other companies should be kept in check more than they currently are, and shouldn't be allowed to have so much influence over so many facets of people's lives.

Photosaurus

I was part of the Project Stream beta back in November - December and honestly the service was amazing. Admittedly we have gigabit fiber from AT&T but the game play was consistently smooth with no lag 99% of the time. I can think of a few instances where it wasn't perfect, but overall I was hugely impressed, particularly when compared to the streaming services offered via the PS4. Going to be real interested to see the price point on this. Regarding the controller, I was able to connect a PS4 remote via USB without any issues.

a5ehren

They're not done presenting yet, so pricing is TBD.

And people with bad connections and low data caps are already being left out of the current generation of consoles and their 70GB day-zero patches. Streaming doesn't change that much.

ED!

Alright the "How do I beat this level" is actually pretty cool.

EDIT: That fucking logo is atrocious.

vamen

ED! wrote: »

Alright the "How do I beat this level" is actually pretty cool.

Indeed.
I thought the idea of basically a hyperlink that let you launch right to that part of a game you saw in a video was super cool, too.

ChaosHat

The concern about connection quality is definitely valid. As an east coast elite with gigabit FiOS I don't think it'll be a problem for me but if I lived out by my parents...yeesh.

Some of the more interesting developments involve not just streaming but developing it as a platform. Local co-op, machine learning in games, the ability to have 1000 player battle royales. It's a bit more ambitious than I thought it would have been initially.

ObiFett

a5ehren wrote: »

They're not done presenting yet, so pricing is TBD.

And people with bad connections and low data caps are already being left out of the current generation of consoles and their 70GB day-zero patches. Streaming doesn't change that much.

bad connections? No. There are plenty of games I can play that dont require a solid connection to the internet. Even those that generally do also have single player options to not have to rely on connecting with other players.

low data caps? sure.

Zombie Gandhi

I'm leery of Google capturing another industry that is pretty vital to my life and finding a way to integrate itself more into the bones of society.

I suppose I should be excited about the power of these announcements, but I'm just filled with apprehension.

Cruor

a5ehren wrote: »

They're not done presenting yet, so pricing is TBD.

And people with bad connections and low data caps are already being left out of the current generation of consoles and their 70GB day-zero patches. Streaming doesn't change that much.

Data caps? Sure. But even with a bad/middling connection I can set up a download to go when I sleep/while I'm at work. With streaming that's definitely not an option.

In an ideal world where everyone has gigabit fiber connections I would love the idea of game streaming. I'm worried that if it's wildly successful it'll become the norm and gate a lot of people out of gaming entirely. At least I'll have DnD to fall back on, I guess...

ObiFett

I'm really really interested what this does to the Video Card industry.

Brody

So this is pretty much the same thing that Shadow ( https://shadow.tech/usen ) is doing, right? Just with a company big enough to inevitably destroy all competitors?

ChaosHat

ObiFett wrote: »

I'm really really interested what this does to the Video Card industry.

I mean if this becomes the standard the low end of cards probably dies and everything else is for like, content creation and whatever else people use Titans and whatever for. And crypto mining I guess?

Zython

This does sound kind of cool, but there are so many caveats right now. Price and monetization being huge factors.

a5ehren

ObiFett wrote: »

I'm really really interested what this does to the Video Card industry.

Well, Nvidia is already pivoting to ML and datacenter work. AMD has both traditional consoles plus Google's business from this thing.

ChaosHat

Brody wrote: »

So this is pretty much the same thing that Shadow ( https://shadow.tech/usen ) is doing, right? Just with a company big enough to inevitably destroy all competitors?

This seems pessimistic. My guess would be Stadia comes out, if it makes a bajillion dollars then in like three years EA pulls their games from their service and makes "Origin Anywhere" and then like three other companies follow suit. See what is happening with video streaming fragmentation. Steam is already messing around in this space with the recent Steam Link changes.

So in like ten years we can look forward to having to have like four different subscriptions to streaming game services just to play all the games!

ED!

Pricing, monetization, publisher buy-in, consumers OK with effectively renting their games, being locked even more into a single eco-system - it's an interesting idea but I want to see hard consumer based facts first. This was a showcase for developers to get them on board. I imagine we'll see more at E3.

Brainiac 8

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

ChaosHat

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

I'm not sure there's a console to reveal. It sounds like it could just be a Chromecast if you needed something.

SyphonBlue

ED! wrote: »

Alright the "How do I beat this level" is actually pretty cool.

EDIT: That fucking logo is atrocious.

"Google, how do I beat this level"

"Okay, let me pull up a video"

"YO YO YO IT'S YA BOY XXGAMER69SUCKITXX PLEASE REMEMBER TO LIKE, COMMENT, AND SUBSC-"

"GOOGLE JUST PULL UP GAMEFAQS GODAMMIT"

Halfmex

Frankly this sort of thing is inevitable, even if Stadia isn't the one to do it (and it certainly looks as though it has the best shot at it so far). File sizes for games have become ridiculously bloated and even for those of us with gigabit connections it means waiting a ridiculous amount of time before you can even begin playing the game you just bought. We've moved backward in actual playability and convenience in gaming from just one generation ago. It looks like consoles will likely go the way of the dodo sooner rather than later if this catches on.

finnith

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

It's GDC...which is generally not supposed to be a consumer-facing conference (I guess unless you're part of the public that likes hearing talks about public vs private spaces in Hitman 2). They'll probably have more later. Don't forget that pricing/logistics/specs for a lot of these services outside of PSNow and stuff like Shadow (i.e. xCloud, Origin, Nvidia Geforce Now, Steam Link) hasn't been announced yet either.

Nightslyr

Project Xcloud has a much better chance of gaining traction because of XBL, IMO.

reVerse

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

There's no console to reveal, it's all in the cloud. As for release date, they did say it'll be available this year.

The lack of games is the real problem. The one original thing they showed, the elf forest thing, didn't look particularly good. And Doom Eternal - the game they said would prove that this works - was just some scenery, no actual gameplay.

ObiFett

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

There is no console... and it was more than just lots of Youtube stuff. I'd recommend actually watching the entire presentation.

SniperGuy

I say meh so far. The internet in most of the US at least isn't at a point where streaming games is all that viable, especially not at 4k 60FPS. And dear god my poor data cap. Their controller is fine, but pretty generic, big missed opportunity to make the buttons google logo colored.

We didn't get any confirmation of games on the platform other than Assassin's Creed, no idea of pricing, and features that sound neat but how often will people actually want to use State Share? "Hey google, how do I beat this level" just gets you google assistant linking you an entire youtube video or gamefaq.

"No hacking" also means "no mods" and also I never believe anyone when they say no hacking.

Brainiac 8

ChaosHat wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

So they greenlit a conference where they didn't reveal the design of the console, no pricing, no release date, no games, just lots of Youtube stuff.

This was a huge waste of money and they could have just issued a press release. :P

I'm not sure there's a console to reveal. It sounds like it could just be a Chromecast if you needed something.

Ah, that could be. I'm tired and didn't even think of that.

ChaosHat

Nightslyr wrote: »

Project Xcloud has a much better chance of gaining traction because of XBL, IMO.

I'm not certain. Chromecasts and Google enabled TVs are already pretty common. This seems low barrier to entry and Google probably has way better infrastructure than MS to bring this to the masses.

I mean it's ultimately going to come down to service quality and games and Google has a leg up on one, Xbox on the other. I just feel like games is the easier one to fix.

a5ehren

Yeah, there is definitely no box here beyond a Chromecast if you want to use it with a TV. They have a special controller that they think works better too, but that won't be required on PC.

Pricing is all still TBD.

Dr. Chaos

If streaming takes off, does that mean I don't have to buy a new goddamn console every 6-10 years?

If so, I'm in and this is needed.