Google Stadia: Thread 01

[Digfox]

The discussion surrounding Stadia is frighteningly similar to the early days hopes for Ouya and OnLive and delivering a better picture and connection rate is far from solving the ease of the failure of such attempts. It's why xCloud feels like the best one to back, MS is clearly carefully rolling it out in a manner that accomplishes a better quality service but in a way that minimises the risks of its failure.

It's also frightening close to being told media streaming would never take off, no-one will buy digital games, Microsoft can't release a console or how there's always a place for physical media. Sure there are huge risks but Google are one of only a few firms that have the infrastructure to do this.

Also what exactly are MS doing better? Their strength (huge) is being able to leverage their existing user bases and Xbox brand to 'incorporate' their xCloud subs. I think the quality of some of the people that Google have brought hopefully shows how serious they might be. Google don't seem to be making errors so far and have strengths (Android, Chrome) to bring to the table too.

Valve steam link and big screen mode are a thing but require you to have your own pc which you stream to your tv. it was a massive flop.

In-Home Streaming/Link on Steam is a feature rather than a service, and was supported through their home devices and continues to be supported in loads of software options. It was never a cloud-based streaming service. Whether it was a flop is largely irrelevant to this conversation given its a feature an 'unknown' number of Steam users might have used.

I don't think Valve would have the capability to release a cloud streaming service. Hell even Nvidia couldn't do it.

[Neon Ignition]

I think what MS is doing better is leveraging their experience of the industry they're trying to grow from, it gives them a better perspective to tackle this from. We've had expensive consoles, cheap consoles, retro consoles, streaming devices, powered PC's, gaming PCs, mobile phones, handheld devices etc and one consistent thread running throughout is that if you launch a gaming platform using traditional games as content then you are directly in competition with existing options, there is no market for reaching millions of customers that don't already exist.

With Stadia as it stands it has to directly compete with 7-10 alternate options available to consumers. It's exactly why bigger fish than Nintendo and Sony haven't been quick to dive into gaming as a market and why Microsoft has always struggled with it also. I think whether Stadia will succeed is a separate question from whether streaming games will be a success. There's a movement toward it sure but it's still at least a decade away from where it needs to be as a platform option.

We're 6-7 years from the moment MS had its ass handed to it for imposing any kind of online limits. It seems like those days are gone yet do any of them dare release next gen with a discless SKU? Nope. MS only just attempted one to a wall of silence. I'd be more than willing to bet any PS6 etc has one too not matter how big digital has become next gen. I know that's not Stadia's approach but it speaks to the mindset of the audience Stadia is pursuing and where the competition's headspace is at. That's still not touching content which so far seems to suggest Google still has nothing unique lined up for the platform. The TV/Netflix streaming analogy for streaming gaming is always a terrible one as neither relates to the other in a meaningful way, they're completely separate things, but they share one core necessity - exclusive content.

Honestly, for anyone here, having a bash when it launches is water off a ducks back. Handing over £119 late this year? Insane

[MartyG]

I've pre-ordered one, but only to stop anyone bagging my online handle

[Digfox]

Honestly, for anyone here, having a bash when it launches is water off a ducks back. Handing over £119 late this year? Insane

I'm going to sound like a Google sales person but if you wanted a Chromecast Ultra, it's not that bad a deal. Just £50 extra for the 3-mth sub and joypad then. One of the negatives is that if you already have a Chromecast Ultra, you can't buy a pack without.

[nonny]

https://www.androidcentral.com/onecast-xbox-one-game-streaming-android-enters-beta

This probably deserves its own thread and might be obselete if MS announce anything "official" for android/iOS in a few days but... OneCast, the 3rd party app that lets you stream Xbox One to your iDevice is now in beta on Android and you can side load it to try it out for free.

I've tried it last night playing AC Odyssey running on a PIxel 2 XL at 1080p and I have to say, its as smooth as running on my wired PC or Surface Go using the standard Xbox Companion App.

So yeah... seems Xbox in-home streaming just got a some more device support, and all this just before MS officially throws its hat into the ring for Cloud streaming.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm going to sound like a Google sales person but if you wanted a Chromecast Ultra, it's not that bad a deal. Just £50 extra for the 3-mth sub and joypad then. One of the negatives is that if you already have a Chromecast Ultra, you can't buy a pack without.

Nah, that's completely fair enough if there's a clear perk to picking it up such as this.

It'll be really interesting to see what Microsoft's plans are. In one way they could be pretty conservative and that would help Stadia stand apart but if it turns out that they're going all in as the rumours suggest and are getting Game Pass, Live and xCloud on even rival products then that'd be huge for them even if it points to the end of the Xbox hardware line.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I'm reading some chatter about this over the pond. In the US ISPs still cap your data unless you pay upwards of $100 pm (ISPs are a notorious rip off in the US and people are generally unwilling to pay this.) Reports are that at 4k streaming will use about 10-20gb per hour. Most people in the States don't have the data to spare. If its a tough sell in the US its going to die on its arse.

[fishbowlhead]

I hope it takes off. The only differential the consoles can bring to the table is their exclusive software. Even if the new consoles do black magic with their tech this system should be running on the latest and greatest PC hardware anyway, so it's always going to be several steps ahead of anything that comes in a £450 console.

Hopefully it'll give the others a kick up the bum in regards to content, MS especially.

4K/60fps Doom Eternal on Ultra settings would be too good to pass up if I wasn't already going to be playing it at a much higher frame rate. It's almost a no-brainer for people with the connection/data but without a £500+ GPU.

Latest and greatest pc hardware? What? In a streaming box? Vs dedicated hardware? Errrrrrrrrm, ok.

And again, infrastructure just isn’t there for this on amass basis, hell if 10 of these were running all the time on my street it would CRIPPLE bandwidth for most the houses, and I’m on 40mb down and 15up fibre.

[eastyy]

I'm reading some chatter about this over the pond. In the US ISPs still cap your data unless you pay upwards of $100 pm (ISPs are a notorious rip off in the US and people are generally unwilling to pay this.) Reports are that at 4k streaming will use about 10-20gb per hour. Most people in the States don't have the data to spare. If its a tough sell in the US its going to die on its arse.

In Ireland we have fair usage cap (which still annoys me as when they say unlimited ...and its not) with most networks usually 1Tb

[wakka]

The latest and greatest hardware is in the data centre, is the point I think.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Another thing to think about is a 4K PC is pushing far more than 20gb per hour through the cable to a monitor. So I can only assume stadia is doing some serious compression and unpacking which isnt going to work in favour of high fidelity graphics. I think when the inevitable comparison videos appear, stadia might lag behind.

[MartyG]

Stadia is going to lag in many ways.

[Team Andromeda]

Put my name down for Pre Order. Must be the only one, but think Google are great and they can track my incredible and legendary pub crawls, all their want

[speedlolita]

Xbox One X beater?!

[Team Andromeda]

Xbox One X beater?!

No, but PS4 Pro killer for sure *rollseyes*