Stadia, Google Game Streaming platform [2019-2021]

Heh, just tried their speed test for the heck of it and I got...

"An error has occurred, please try again."

It's possibly getting hammered, but what happens if a lot of people decide they want to play the newest shiny game that just released on Stadia and it's getting hammered?

Must be on their end. About fell over when I got that error on my Chromebook. Tried everything to get it to work & no dice. Even tried it on Edge on my Xbox with a wired connection. Nope!

If it's just an extension of the Game Pass service then I see far less downsides. In that case you'd have all the benefits of streamed gaming with all the benefits of locally rendered gaming.

That's how I expect them to position xCloud: just a another feature of GamePass or Gold. No need to upset or confuse the masses with another service. Paying for one of their subs? Stream your Game Pass/Games With Gold games or your already bought games to whatever device you want. Hopefully they get the devices right from the start. None of that Founder/Chromecast crap. Hopefully that means any modern web browser for basic support & official Windows 10, Android & iOS(hopefully) apps for all the features. I think the big question with xCloud is whether or not it's activated for every game or will the titles need updates to support it? Thought I read somewhere it will work similar to how they do Backward Compatible games(not every title is supported, only curated titles).

Tommy McClain
 
Must be on their end. About fell over when I got that error on my Chromebook. Tried everything to get it to work & no dice. Even tried it on Edge on my Xbox with a wired connection. Nope!

That's how I expect them to position xCloud: just a another feature of GamePass or Gold. No need to upset or confuse the masses with another service. Paying for one of their subs? Stream your Game Pass/Games With Gold games or your already bought games to whatever device you want. Hopefully they get the devices right from the start. None of that Founder/Chromecast crap. Hopefully that means any modern web browser for basic support & official Windows 10, Android & iOS(hopefully) apps for all the features. I think the big question with xCloud is whether or not it's activated for every game or will the titles need updates to support it? Thought I read somewhere it will work similar to how they do Backward Compatible games(not every title is supported, only curated titles).

Tommy McClain
MS's latest description :
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/24/project-xcloud-more-for-gamers-and-developers/
Today you can play three generations of amazing games on Xbox One. That means that Project xCloud has the technical capability to stream more than 3,500 games, without any changes or modifications required by a developer. In other words, developers will be able to dramatically scale their existing games across devices, with no additional development, no additional code base maintenance and no separate updates. When a developer updates the Xbox One version of their title, those updates will also apply to all versions available on Project xCloud without any additional work.

There are currently more than 1,900 games in development for Xbox One, all of which could run on Project xCloud. Developers creating those games continue working normally – building with the tools they have – while we do the work to make their games accessible to the broadest set of players possible.


Read more at https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05...or-gamers-and-developers/#K6VyFS2hsaZYWpt4.99
 
Doesn't Steam prohibit lower pricing on other services, so no chance of a game being cheaper on Stadia? Wonder if that's how Steam sees it.
 
Doesn't Steam prohibit lower pricing on other services, so no chance of a game being cheaper on Stadia? Wonder if that's how Steam sees it.

Hard to say. If there is, games that are exclusive to the Epic store still price themselves the same as if they were on the Steam store (basically the same as console pricing). I can only think of Metro: Exodus where this wasn't the case. For indie games that aren't on console, it's a bit tougher to judge, but you can get a feel by looking at past pricing for those indie developers and see if they've deviated from it when Epic bought exclusivity.

I think there's far more pressure on developers and publishers to price PC versions of games the same price as console versions of games, at least within the launch window.

One thing Steam needs to still improve on despite their work on it the past few years is communication with developers. Depending on what developer you talk to, you could get different answers to the same questions about what they think Steam's policy is on X thing.

Regards,
SB
 
Maybe it's expectations, as it seems like it's only me that this sounds about what I expected, and not bad?

Already knew cost of controller and chromecast which are optional.
Can buy game at normal game prices.
Go via the subscription route and get curated library.
Subscription fee doesn't sound ludicrous compared to gold and plus / gamepass and psnow.

Someone is going to have to outline what they think is a good deal, so I can see what I'm missing.
As I'm pretty sure it is me that just doesn't get it.
 
4k at 35mbps. A 1080p Bluray is 35mbps. At less than half the framerate and 4x times less pixels. And I don't think we know what kind of settings games will be running at but I doubt it will be 4k60fps with everything turned to max. 60fps will probably be a must to keep lagg somewhat in check so you won't get super crisp butter smooth 60fps as you would get on a local machine.

At 10 bucks a month I just don't see the point. Price wise it is not significantly different from buying a console/pc except you do lose the ability to resell your games and given Google's track records there is no telling how long you'd be able to play your games either. On top of that the experience probably isn't going to be better than what you'd get on a console either.

Even at 5 bucks a month it doesn't sound very appealing to me. That is barely cheaper than a console over a generation and only if you don't need a controller and/or Chromecast.

The only way I can see it being somewhat attractive is if you'd get access the some of the latest AAA games for that 5 ~ 10 bucks so you save a lot of money of the software. But that is where the profit is...
 
In terms of quality of the stream, I've heard pretty good things from people that tried project stream.
I've not seen it personally, and it's not for me even though I have a very good FTH connection, that includes very good latency.

When you say it's barley cheaper than console, is that including live, plus and buying console, etc?
In terms of not being able to resell games, that's the same as current digital purchases, and the way the industry (and consumers) is going for better or for worse.

So apart from the general issues you have around streaming and that it's Google, what price model would you think is good as it sounds like none for you due to technical issues you forsee.

Just trying to breakdown pricing model is bad compared to what people expected, to technical limitations and it's Google which we already knew and how it actually performs is unknown.

Maybe this is actually a limitation to how they will be marketing it, as home console replacement?
This actually helped me understand as I was going on pricing model, that sounded like it was really bad, but it's not that in particular.
 
Xbox live for 5 years is 300 dollars. Consoles launched at 400 dollars this gen? That is 700 dollars over 5 years. Stadia is 600, assuming you don't need any hardware. A neglecteble difference. If you need a controller or Chromecast device price is pretty much the same.

It doesn't look like consoles will be going digital only next gen so the potential for used games and reselling is still there. Not on PC but those games are usually cheaper and if you buy DRM free you can essentially play them forever. Probably the likes of Steam also have something in their pocket in case it looks like the service would go under forever.

The pricing doesn't seem competitive to me if you look at what you are getting. I don't think a Stadia stream will look or play better than what you can get on a local device for essentially the same price. So for a (semi) core gamer I don't see much point in Stadia. To me it seems this is the market Google is going after.

The casual crowd is also well served with tons of free games that run on pretty much every phone/low end PC.

Even if Stadia would offer (close) to the same quality as a console/PC, at the current price point I don't see the advantage.

Streaming works great for movies or Netflix but I think the proposition for games is different.
 
Xbox Live and Game Pass can be had for entirely free if you do Microsoft Reward points. I have my Live and Game Pass valid until 2022 all from free Rewards.

There's also many times sales of Live for around $40 a year, Game Pass for $1 for 1 to 3 months at a time, or Game Pass for $60 for 12 months (buy one get one free style).

That is the pricing many are used to.
 
Xbox Live and Game Pass can be had for entirely free if you do Microsoft Reward points. I have my Live and Game Pass valid until 2022 all from free Rewards.
So have I, but I wouldn't use that as a basis. Doubt it's the general public.
Also, no idea what deals they may run, and I don't think you can get plus and psnow for so cheap.
 
uhhhh what? That makes no sense.

You're hiring the hardware to run the games you own but potentially have no access too, unless they allow you leverage your Steam* library. That would be a smart move and unburdens Google from shutting down the service and leaving people without access to games they bought. It also removes them from responsibility about handling payments, except to them for the remote hosting service.

All Google care about is knowing what you buy and what you play. Actually, when you think about it like that, it kind of makes sense.. for Google. I remain skeptical of the widespread demand for it, though.

*other digital stores are available.
 
My updated views with input from you guys.
Was still underwhelmed by the show and was expecting more of everything. It was like a cheap cut back Nintendo direct.

Pricing I think was ok in a vacuum and this is what I was focused on, even taking into account streaming technical hurdles and non ownership of games etc, price is ok.
When compared to what xcloud and psnow will probably make available it doesn't compare well though.
Stadia is meant as a console and pc replacement. If MS comes out with a reasonable pricing model how will Stadia compete?
Even if latency is fine, it will only have a year headstart in terms of graphics, trouble is it will still be this gen games so won't look much better than 4pro and 1X. Being able to play everywhere at slightly better graphics than xcloud just doesn't seem like enough.
Not when you factor in console and/or pc that can be played natively also.

I'm not sure how they would be able to price it to make it competitive at the moment though. Need to give it some more thought, any ideas anyone?

Wont have the width and depth of games, a native device if someone wanted it, next gen games yet.
I'm sure there's a place for it, hard for me to see how it carves it out though.
So thanks for the reasonable discussion, as my thinking was bit too narrow.
 
The only hook they have is that you don't have to pay up front $400-500 for a next gen console, another $200-300 for games and accessories and another $50-60 for online subscription.

Hey it works with cable TV. Nobody wants to pay hundreds or thousands for a new DVR and setup on their own when they can pay the cable company $20 a month to use their crappier DVR.

Of course you give up some of the best exclusives that MS, Sony and Nintendo develop and publish.
 
The only hook they have is that you don't have to ... another $200-300 for games and accessories and another $50-60 for online subscription.

WtF? No. They exactly have that same hook, unless you're a settler... Settle for stereo audio, settle for 1080p. Even then, you still need to buy your own games.
 
The only hook they have is that you don't have to pay up front $400-500 for a next gen console...
At launch, but more like $300 on average.
...another $200-300 for games...
Optional. You could choose to use PSNow or Game Pass for a library at a low monthly price.
...and accessories...
You'll still going to need accessories if you want the same functionality. If you want voice chat, you need a headset. Want local coop? You need another controller.
Hey it works with cable TV. Nobody wants to pay hundreds or thousands for a new DVR and setup on their own when they can pay the cable company $20 a month to use their crappier DVR.
I thought cable was hated and more and more people are moving away from it to save money. Plus who on earth spends thousands on a DVR?!
 
I spent $1200 on a Tivo setup, which includes lifetime subscription.

No it's not typical at all but Tivo is far superior to any other DVR and easy commercial skipping.

But I was saving $80 a month on subscription costs so it paid for itself years ago.
 
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