Silent_Buddha
Legend
Stadia isn't for me, and even if it was my awful internet would rule it out, but the almost gleeful attitude from some folks about Stadia's many launch issues is just weird to me.
Increased competition in a sector isn't a bad thing. It's not, competition is how products and services get better. Google competing with Microsoft and Sony will make Microsoft and Sony try harder. Everybody will try harder. Consumers will get better products.
Ask yourself, are you pleased Stadia is failing? If you answer yes honestly, then ask yourself why. What's in it for you?
For me it's not so much glee at them floundering but satisfaction in that things are going about how I expected them to.
IE - Google being a bit arrogant and cavalier at their entrance into the game streaming arena. Especially when you consider that Google as a company and it's various parts has almost no experience with non-mobile gaming. They have no experience and no reference point to understand what console and PC gamers want nor any experience with delivering an experience that console or PC gamers expect.
I understand that part of this is them trying to deliver that experience to non console and non PC gamers, but when your offerings are all basically PC games...what do they expect. And further when they make claims of 4k60 gameplay. Claims that this will revolutionize gaming. Claims that this will deliver gaming experiences beyond what is possible on PC and console.
Claims that fly in the face of everything that has come before it.
And when they announced they were launching the service AND charging for it. The expectation was that, OK, they've mostly finished and we get to see some of these claims come to fruition.
Only it didn't. It basically played out almost exactly like it has with previous streaming solutions. Only, it was less polished with more missing features and almost none of the stuff they claimed they would deliver.
Imagine my surprise on seeing itmeJP open up his founder package and start everything up only to notice.
- Oh the wireless controller doesn't work wirelessly. Coming in a future update.
- Subpar graphics on a business internet connection in a city with a Google datacenter. The best possible condition to play it in.
- Many, many other things that were noted as coming at some nebulous future time.
To be fair, I don't think Microsoft is going to fare much better with Xcloud. But then they aren't treating it like a released product and charging people for the pleasure of Alpha/Beta testing their service. They're actually treating it as an Alpha/Beta test of a product that is not ready for the consumer space.
So...if there's any glee on my part it's all about.
- Google shouting to the world that they know better than anyone else how to deliver a quality gaming experience over the internet.
- Google making some grandiose claims about what they will deliver.
- Releasing it as a paid product
- The free version is coming at a "later date" much like most of the features they claim they will have.
- Seeing almost none of their claims coming to fruition.
- Promptly start blaiming everyone but themselves.
- The ISPs are to blame.
- The customers are to blame.
- The developers are to blame.
- Google is NOT to blame.
- Promptly start blaiming everyone but themselves.
- Oh, and did I mention that it's a paid product?
But I still would have been properly amazed if they'd delivered on their 4k60 claim with lower latency than any streaming service that came before them. As it is, the only interesting positive from their launch of the service is that it'll run in a Chrome browser. Yippee?
Regards,
SB
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