For me right now, lack of iOS support is the killer. I got Stadia because I expected that I would be able to play it on my iPhone and iPad. Months later, I haven’t heard a peep. Given that PS4 remote play apps work on iOS, I have to presume that this isn’t a purely Apple thing.
I really just don’t get why it’s taking this long. Did they rush out things this far ahead of development? Have they actually started yet? I can’t tell based on the general silence on Google’s end.
I mean, Google not developing Stadia to work on a rival's platform because they think "Stadia is such a killer app that it could get people onto android" is not something I'd put past them.
I doubt it, it makes more sense to encourage people onto the Stadia platform if the streaming works on iOS. Right now the phone rollout is pretty limited, they're testing support for other Android phones and will be enabling those "soon" but they've been quiet about iOS so far.
I believe other streaming apps have also had some issues getting theirs apps through Apple. Obviously it can be done, but knowing Apple I suspect there's added hoops to jump through. Not to mention you can't run Chromium, etc, on iOS devices so whatever they do here will need to be separate from what they do elsewhere. I'm guessing iOS support is lower on the priority list compared to every other feature they're still missing so if I were to place a bet it would be on that being a bit out still, regardless.
Android's worldwide supremacy over iOS isn't going anywhere--and considering Apple, as the sole proponent iOS, claims between 10% and 12% of smartphones total, the difference is so massive I doubt even Google's wildest dreams expect that it'll somehow put it even more in their favor. On the other hand, Stadia's struggling as it is. It's not very surprising iOS would be low on their priority list compared to "Other Android smart phones, some brands of which, like Huawei, outnumber all iPhones combined by themselves."
The question isn't why it's not available for iOS (though, eventually, it needs to be). The question is why it's not available on Huawei or Oppo or Samsung phones yet, some of which nearly match (or in Samsung and Huawei's case, easily surpass) Apple on their own, and use (mostly) the same operating system.
Does phone Stadia even work without a Stadia controller plugged directly into it? I reckon they need to sort that out before launching widely on android.
Which makes you wonder just what size of team they have that they aren't rolling out all those promised features yesterday.
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SurfpossumA nonentitytrying to preserve the anonymity he so richly deserves.Registered Userregular
Does phone Stadia even work without a Stadia controller plugged directly into it? I reckon they need to sort that out before launching widely on android.
Which makes you wonder just what size of team they have that they aren't rolling out all those promised features yesterday.
Phone Stadia works just fine with other controllers (Bluetooth or wired) aside from the Switch Pro controller (which is the controller's fault).
My ISP has finally fixed their stadia issues...two full weeks after they broke it that seems to be the current issue with stadia, there are so few people using it when an ISP breaks it they don't get enough complaints to consider it a credible outage if everything else is working perfectly..me and the like, 12 other stadia customers in Alberta had to badger them every day.
I still love stadia but now I'm kinda iffy on buying games through it, for no fault of stadias own, until it picks up more traction
Notably, it confirms again that the free tier won't require any buy-in (except for games, obviously). I know there have been people pretending that they might still require some sort of entry fee (premiere edition, etc) for the free tier so:
Q: What about my friend that didn’t purchase a Founders/Premiere Edition nor receive a Buddy Pass? When will they be able to play games on Stadia?
A: In the coming months, anyone in our 14 launch countries who didn't buy a Premiere Edition or receive a buddy pass will be able to access Stadia for free.
They've still got a long ways to go but if they're shifting to, you know, actually providing updates I'll gladly welcome it.
Lately Xbox Game Streaming performance has been kind of disappointing, with repeated disconnections and reconnections. But I suspect that has more to do with the fact that I've been playing it with a phone on my university's public wifi--4G LTE performance might honestly be better. Also, it's a (free) beta, so it's hard to get angry so much as just report the issues and try again some other time.
Granted, even when it works well, a normal-sized phone like an LG G6 is pretty much impossible to read any text on while holding the controller at a comfortable distance. I suppose I really need something like a Razer Kishi to enjoy it at a distance my eyes can handle.
Am I still going to be a number since I'm a free Stadia person (Bizazedo 231232 or whatever) or will I just be Bizazedo finally?
In-game, obviously.
If you're not a founder you'll always have numbers attached to your Stadia account.
With that being said, Destiny 2 shows the numbers for some reason. No idea why, but I'm pretty certain other games don't. It's definitely weird that they show it but it's on them to fix.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
At the moment Project X Cloud works so well for me that imma be mad if there is any lack of support for streaming games in the future.
I think streaming is a great feature to an otherwise normal gaming setup.
I think streaming as the only way to play games ever (or in the words of Google's PR people, the "newest, most logic defying, mind bending, [inaudible] gaming platform on EARTH") is a pipe dream.
If you're not a founder you'll always have numbers attached to your Stadia account.
With that being said, Destiny 2 shows the numbers for some reason. No idea why, but I'm pretty certain other games don't. It's definitely weird that they show it but it's on them to fix.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind having a number after my name outside of the game. It makes perfect sense to ID people so people can't squat names.
Ingame, though? It's weird how psychology works, but wow, that alone could prevent me from participating in the long run....if other multiplayer games are like Destiny 2.
I was toying with Samurai Shodown and I thought it was the same there, but I dunno / don't really remember.
XBL: Bizazedo
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
I can see it both ways... for me if this gets improved upon and they can lower the latency even more than they have already (and it's already pretty impressive imo) while pushing out 4K+ with minimal resolution drops, I for sure could see myself moving away from a physical box, and I love my physical boxes! Of course I'd sacrifice game stability and access should something ever happen on MS or Googles end, and that's a harder mental hill for me to get over. Again, I can see it not being for everyone, but I've been impressed enough so far that it kind of feels like back whenever anyone suggested going full digital for game titles and I would scoff. I SCOFF NO LONGER! Rid me of this plastic trash taking up space on my shelves.
I was streaming a game in my living room the other day when xCloud went down and I reeeeaaaallly had to consider if it was worth the effort to change location to continue playing on the big screen in the entertainment area. These are my new problems I am ashamed of!
What annoys me is that people are going to look at this as a mark against streaming games as a whole and not as a problem specifically with how NVIDIA is approaching the problem. I'm not sure what they're thinking but they clearly decided the "ask for forgiveness not permission" route was appropriate. Spoilers: It isn't. Prior to all this I thought Geforce Now could potentially be a better solution for me personally but yikes, this is going worse than I imagined.
I'm thinking some publishers were expecting money for their trouble once GFN exited beta and became a paid service, but it seems like NVIDIA's instead the one acting like they are doing a favor not charging the publishers and hoovering up all the fees for themself.
The short answer (if you don't read the article) is that Google isn't offering any kind of incentives, there isn't a big enough audience for most publishers to stick out their neck without incentives, and pretty much everybody expects Google will give up on the service (seriously, everybody interviewed for the article brought that up unprompted).
The short answer (if you don't read the article) is that Google isn't offering any kind of incentives, there isn't a big enough audience for most publishers to stick out their neck without incentives, and pretty much everybody expects Google will give up on the service (seriously, everybody interviewed for the article brought that up unprompted).
The quote from the article/
"If you could see yourself getting into a long term relationship with Google?" one developer said. "But with Google's history, I don't even know if they're working on Stadia in a year. That wouldn't be something crazy that Google does. It's within their track record."
This concern — that Google might just give up on Stadia at some point and kill the service, as it has done with so many other services over the years — was repeatedly brought up, unprompted, by every person we spoke with for this piece.
Basically, Google made their own bed with their reputation and hasn't done anything to improve that reputation or quell those fears at all. It's more that they're acting right along side those fears.
I'm pretty baffled at their strategy of just expecting developers to spend lots of money porting to their platform with almost no financial reason to do so.....it's ahh, something I guess.
I'm pretty baffled at their strategy of just expecting developers to spend lots of money porting to their platform with almost no financial reason to do so.....it's ahh, something I guess.
Especially since Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft (especially Nintendo) is working to incentivize game development, or at least make game development as easy as possible.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I'm pretty baffled at their strategy of just expecting developers to spend lots of money porting to their platform with almost no financial reason to do so.....it's ahh, something I guess.
It's Google. It's p much all they've ever had to do up to this point.
I'm pretty baffled at their strategy of just expecting developers to spend lots of money porting to their platform with almost no financial reason to do so.....it's ahh, something I guess.
Maybe Google secretly hates game streaming as a concept and wanted to ruin it as quickly as possible for everyone.
Their biggest problem is that they didn't launch with the free service. That's the only thing that was ever interesting about their pitch, but they hedged instead with this weird half launch and killed any momentum they might have had.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Their biggest problem is that they didn't launch with the free service. That's the only thing that was ever interesting about their pitch, but they hedged instead with this weird half launch and killed any momentum they might have had.
A free service that has yet to even get a release date, but one they sold the system on. I hate to be the "I told you so" dude but, december of last year:
There's no date and no way to play the service without purchasing hardware.
Until we get rock solid dates for when the 1080p tier will be available and confirmation that you don't have to buy a Chromecast Ultra, then I think I will consider it a viable part of the Stadia package. As for now, it's just another future promise with no date for delivery.
Peoples three month subscriptions are running out, and they still haven't announced a free tier yet
So far from what I can see the free games have been:
Destiny 2: The Collection
Farming Simulator 19
Gylt
Metro Exodus
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration
Samurai Shodown
Thumper
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Now:
GRID
SteamWorld Dig 2
SteamWorld Quest
With Serious Sam Collection coming out tomorrow, I believe that makes 30 games on the service, so they will have given away about 37% of all games on the service via Pro sub.
A lot of tech companies believe that if you build the platform, people will use/elaborate on it as that's the open source/tech model. However, things need a kick start in established or mature segments, which Google has totally overlooked. With the money/effort they're spending they should have bought or partnered with some studios to help things along, as well as to refine the middleware/tools to make it easy to make the steam->stadia transition.
To briefly return to an earlier point, iOS is probably the least of their concerns (if they have any common sense, anyway...so maybe I shouldn't hold my breath).
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
as well as to refine the middleware/tools to make it easy to make the steam->stadia transition.
It’s not this easy. Stadia is running a custom Linux OS on custom hardware. It’s like porting to a console.
Yeah, either you recognize that the port will require X people working for Y weeks at Z dollars spent and you help fund that, or you make it so easy as to be completely negligible that people can just shrug and toss their game onto your platform on a whim. One of the two.
as well as to refine the middleware/tools to make it easy to make the steam->stadia transition.
It’s not this easy. Stadia is running a custom Linux OS on custom hardware. It’s like porting to a console.
I just had a flashback of Valve's huge SteamOS push with the introduction of Steam machines. "Linux and open source streaming are the future of gaming." Ouch.
Their biggest problem is that they didn't launch with the free service. That's the only thing that was ever interesting about their pitch, but they hedged instead with this weird half launch and killed any momentum they might have had.
A free service that has yet to even get a release date, but one they sold the system on. I hate to be the "I told you so" dude but, december of last year:
There's no date and no way to play the service without purchasing hardware.
Until we get rock solid dates for when the 1080p tier will be available and confirmation that you don't have to buy a Chromecast Ultra, then I think I will consider it a viable part of the Stadia package. As for now, it's just another future promise with no date for delivery.
Peoples three month subscriptions are running out, and they still haven't announced a free tier yet
There's not an exact date, sure, but in the last week or two they've said two things about the free tier: It'll be out in the next few months and they confirmed it won't require you to buy anything:
Q: What about my friend that didn’t purchase a Founders/Premiere Edition nor receive a Buddy Pass? When will they be able to play games on Stadia?
A: In the coming months, anyone in our 14 launch countries who didn't buy a Premiere Edition or receive a buddy pass will be able to access Stadia for free.
Basically there's a month Pro trial but depending on capacity in your area you might not be able to create an account. Once you're in, you're in, so there's not going to be queues like GFN's free tier as far as we can tell.
But sure, I guess we can keep pretending like this is some mythical free tier that'll never exist.
The short answer (if you don't read the article) is that Google isn't offering any kind of incentives, there isn't a big enough audience for most publishers to stick out their neck without incentives, and pretty much everybody expects Google will give up on the service (seriously, everybody interviewed for the article brought that up unprompted).
I think there's a little bit of confirmation bias going on with this article. Obviously, we have no idea of the demographics around this article, such as which indie devs did they talk to. We know that Google has said they plan for 120 games released this year and unless they totally pulled that number out of nowhere I suspect there's a healthy number of indie devs that responded positively when Google approached them.
The article tries to gloss over the fact that they announced 9 titles for release soon, many of them indie, in the latter half of February. Since then 3 of them have already launched (Spitlings and 2 of the SteamWorld titles), Serious Sam Collection is coming out tomorrow, and the other 2 SteamWorld games announced are out next week.
I think Google obviously isn't offering enough to everyone. My hunch is that they're concentrating on some big names to ensure that you can play things like Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, while not really trying to woo all indie devs as much. I think they'll have to change that attitude eventually (and hopefully before long) and flesh out the offerings but I don't really think porting existing indie games is what's going to sell the service. It took the Switch awhile to build up their indie offerings too, but that platform isn't exactly dead. Why does everyone think that every indie game has to be ported immediately?
The problem with most indie titles is that integrated graphics can already play them well. Its hard to justify what the cloud is doing when any device with a screen can already run them locally. The meat and potatoes of these services really does have to be AAA or at least AA.
Posts
Android's worldwide supremacy over iOS isn't going anywhere--and considering Apple, as the sole proponent iOS, claims between 10% and 12% of smartphones total, the difference is so massive I doubt even Google's wildest dreams expect that it'll somehow put it even more in their favor. On the other hand, Stadia's struggling as it is. It's not very surprising iOS would be low on their priority list compared to "Other Android smart phones, some brands of which, like Huawei, outnumber all iPhones combined by themselves."
The question isn't why it's not available for iOS (though, eventually, it needs to be). The question is why it's not available on Huawei or Oppo or Samsung phones yet, some of which nearly match (or in Samsung and Huawei's case, easily surpass) Apple on their own, and use (mostly) the same operating system.
Which makes you wonder just what size of team they have that they aren't rolling out all those promised features yesterday.
I still love stadia but now I'm kinda iffy on buying games through it, for no fault of stadias own, until it picks up more traction
This week they're letting more phones play games, namely any recent Samsung Galaxy: https://community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-Community-Blog/This-Week-on-Stadia-Play-games-on-tens-of-millions-of-new-phones/ba-p/15326
Odds are they're still limiting things to phones that support VP9, but it's a start.
And now we have all the SteamWorld games coming: https://community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-Community-Blog/Dig-into-new-adventures-with-SteamWorld-coming-soon-to-Stadia/ba-p/15637
They also posted a "end of Pro sub" FAQ: https://community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-Community-Blog/What-happens-after-my-3-free-months-of-Stadia-Pro-are-up/ba-p/15574
Notably, it confirms again that the free tier won't require any buy-in (except for games, obviously). I know there have been people pretending that they might still require some sort of entry fee (premiere edition, etc) for the free tier so:
They've still got a long ways to go but if they're shifting to, you know, actually providing updates I'll gladly welcome it.
In-game, obviously.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Granted, even when it works well, a normal-sized phone like an LG G6 is pretty much impossible to read any text on while holding the controller at a comfortable distance. I suppose I really need something like a Razer Kishi to enjoy it at a distance my eyes can handle.
If you're not a founder you'll always have numbers attached to your Stadia account.
With that being said, Destiny 2 shows the numbers for some reason. No idea why, but I'm pretty certain other games don't. It's definitely weird that they show it but it's on them to fix.
I think streaming is a great feature to an otherwise normal gaming setup.
I think streaming as the only way to play games ever (or in the words of Google's PR people, the "newest, most logic defying, mind bending, [inaudible] gaming platform on EARTH") is a pipe dream.
Ingame, though? It's weird how psychology works, but wow, that alone could prevent me from participating in the long run....if other multiplayer games are like Destiny 2.
I was toying with Samurai Shodown and I thought it was the same there, but I dunno / don't really remember.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
I was streaming a game in my living room the other day when xCloud went down and I reeeeaaaallly had to consider if it was worth the effort to change location to continue playing on the big screen in the entertainment area. These are my new problems I am ashamed of!
What annoys me is that people are going to look at this as a mark against streaming games as a whole and not as a problem specifically with how NVIDIA is approaching the problem. I'm not sure what they're thinking but they clearly decided the "ask for forgiveness not permission" route was appropriate. Spoilers: It isn't. Prior to all this I thought Geforce Now could potentially be a better solution for me personally but yikes, this is going worse than I imagined.
I was just about to post that.
The short answer (if you don't read the article) is that Google isn't offering any kind of incentives, there isn't a big enough audience for most publishers to stick out their neck without incentives, and pretty much everybody expects Google will give up on the service (seriously, everybody interviewed for the article brought that up unprompted).
The quote from the article/
Basically, Google made their own bed with their reputation and hasn't done anything to improve that reputation or quell those fears at all. It's more that they're acting right along side those fears.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Grid
Steamworld Dig 2
Steamworld Quest (this game is awesome if you like deck builders, play it)
Especially since Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft (especially Nintendo) is working to incentivize game development, or at least make game development as easy as possible.
It's Google. It's p much all they've ever had to do up to this point.
Very much in the same vein as Slay the Spire but with a sillier story. The mechanics are really fun though.
And I am still horrible at racing games I discovered. Grid sure is pretty though.
Maybe Google secretly hates game streaming as a concept and wanted to ruin it as quickly as possible for everyone.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
My guess is that they didn't budget enough for developer compensation.
A free service that has yet to even get a release date, but one they sold the system on. I hate to be the "I told you so" dude but, december of last year:
Peoples three month subscriptions are running out, and they still haven't announced a free tier yet
So far from what I can see the free games have been:
Destiny 2: The Collection
Farming Simulator 19
Gylt
Metro Exodus
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration
Samurai Shodown
Thumper
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Now:
GRID
SteamWorld Dig 2
SteamWorld Quest
With Serious Sam Collection coming out tomorrow, I believe that makes 30 games on the service, so they will have given away about 37% of all games on the service via Pro sub.
It’s not this easy. Stadia is running a custom Linux OS on custom hardware. It’s like porting to a console.
Yeah, either you recognize that the port will require X people working for Y weeks at Z dollars spent and you help fund that, or you make it so easy as to be completely negligible that people can just shrug and toss their game onto your platform on a whim. One of the two.
I just had a flashback of Valve's huge SteamOS push with the introduction of Steam machines. "Linux and open source streaming are the future of gaming." Ouch.
There's not an exact date, sure, but in the last week or two they've said two things about the free tier: It'll be out in the next few months and they confirmed it won't require you to buy anything:
The latest Stadia app version also includes details about how it'll work: https://9to5google.com/2020/02/27/stadia-2-7-base-youtube-streaming/
Basically there's a month Pro trial but depending on capacity in your area you might not be able to create an account. Once you're in, you're in, so there's not going to be queues like GFN's free tier as far as we can tell.
But sure, I guess we can keep pretending like this is some mythical free tier that'll never exist.
I think there's a little bit of confirmation bias going on with this article. Obviously, we have no idea of the demographics around this article, such as which indie devs did they talk to. We know that Google has said they plan for 120 games released this year and unless they totally pulled that number out of nowhere I suspect there's a healthy number of indie devs that responded positively when Google approached them.
The article tries to gloss over the fact that they announced 9 titles for release soon, many of them indie, in the latter half of February. Since then 3 of them have already launched (Spitlings and 2 of the SteamWorld titles), Serious Sam Collection is coming out tomorrow, and the other 2 SteamWorld games announced are out next week.
I think Google obviously isn't offering enough to everyone. My hunch is that they're concentrating on some big names to ensure that you can play things like Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, while not really trying to woo all indie devs as much. I think they'll have to change that attitude eventually (and hopefully before long) and flesh out the offerings but I don't really think porting existing indie games is what's going to sell the service. It took the Switch awhile to build up their indie offerings too, but that platform isn't exactly dead. Why does everyone think that every indie game has to be ported immediately?
Edit: Anyway, since y'all just want to find as many negative articles you can here's an interview with Larian Studios about Baldur's Gate 3. They seem pretty pumped about working with it in general: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-27-baldurs-gate-3-interview