https://store.google.com/product/stadia_founders_edition
It's been tried before but this looks amazing.
Yeah it does and I have taken the built.
Bit more detail from them and it could be a goer
What more do you want to see bunny?
Google have indeed come up with a great idea. But then.....
Nexus Phones
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Hello
plus all the ones I can't remember were also great ideas. Google does have a long and miserable history of launching stuff with great fanfare, getting early adopters to invest huge amounts of time and often money into it and then killing it stone dead a few years later. I'd certainly go for the free service next year if Stadia still exists but there's zero chance I'd drop £120 on another Google flavour of the month
I have to say that your post saved me a lot of typing, I'm feeling exactly the same about it.
Streaming media certainly is an important step. Let's look at recent events, ITunes are stopping selling their download service. Spotify and Deezer have caused this, non-ownership of the files that deliver the media, if the quality and cost are fair, can be a game changer.
Looking at the facts, large bitrate streaming has issues, netflix, youtube, amazon prime video, there are always times when the quality drops, even if you have a large amount of bandwidth both up and down.
Do that in a game, it's an immersion killer.
Has anyone tried Playstation Now? When I did, it was acceptable but like playing well PS2 games on a youtube stream at medium bitrate at best.
Steam Link, great tech, LAN based where speed is supposed to be best. But it still drops quality occasionally even over a stable network, and they stopped selling it.
So personally, I have doubts they can meet the quality and cost balance but would be prepared to be wrong.
Edit: Plus look at the royalties the song writers, publishers and mucisians get from streaming services, 2000 listens might buy you a nice lunch. Are those game developers, the AAA ones who put hundreds of millions of £s into development going to put the latest titles onto this service? I doubt it, they rely on pre-orders and DLC not on peanuts for streaming.
Edit: And let's face it, Destiny 2 as a selling point? Seriously?
As we established at the LAN, I can't see anything below 100Hz anymore, so a streaming service that supports a measly 60 FPS is of absolutely no interest to me. I would suggest you all put that £120 towards a 144Hz monitor instead... :D
Combine that with the inevitable added input lag, uncertain and variable bit-rates for both video and audio, and I see no place for this technology in the home of any 'serious' gamer.
With that said, keep in mind that even the more casual-minded have been able to see the difference when going from a 60Hz display to a 120... so perhaps my argument need not be restricted to the enthusiasts alone!
To me this remains a step back for now, and I just don't see why we need to go there with storage media getting so affordable, and uncapped home internet being (more or less) the norm.
I’m thinking after more careful reading this is aimed at the single player console market rpgs or pausable games. I can see its place there. But I don’t need a Chromecast or another controller.
The refresh rate I see as less important in console sprpg.
It will also work with Keyboard and mouse, I am seeing at a interesting experiment and you dont have to get the £119 there is a free service next year. But if it works it will be impressive to see.
Quote from: albert;437966The refresh rate I see as less important in console sprpg.
There's a degree of personal preference here, I suppose. To me it doesn't matter what the game is, 60Hz is sluggish and unresponsive. Racing, RPG...the typical (for me) 'console games', they can all still benefit from a higher frame rate, IMO.
And @ BT, keep in mind it won't ever be free. First of all you have to buy the hardware (controller and chromecast ultra dongle),
and that the games themselves are not free. Only in the monthly 'pro' (£8.99/mo) option do you get any free games - and they could all be naff... Destiny 2? Really? The 'free' option just opens up another games store, if you want to actually play anything.
Quote from: BrotherTobious;437951What more do you want to see bunny?
Cost of games not in the subscription?
Other than destiny 2, what is with it games-wise?
the input lag will kill any immersion you ever want to feel in any game you play.
When Digital foundry tested stadia they measured a button to pixel delay of 180ms. No thanks.
All reasonable reason why not to but l want to see what it is like and I think it is worth a punt. They still have l some delopment time.
At this point you might be wondering what games you can play on Stadia - and, well, you're not alone. Thankfully, during Google's pre-E3 video stream, we got a chance to see what's coming to the service:
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Borderlands 3
The Crew 2
Darksiders Genesis
Destiny 2
Doom
Doom Eternal
Dragon Ball Xenoverse
The Elder Scrolls Online
Farming Simulator 19
Final Fantasy 15
Football Manager
Get Packed
GRID
Gylt
Just Dance
Metro Exodus
Mortal Kombat 11
NBA 2K
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Rage 2
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Samurai Showdown
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
Tomb Raider Definitive Edition
Thumper
Trials Rising
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Taken from this (https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/google-stadia) hands on review.
I'm interested enough to keep an eye on it, particularly on how it ends up performing on 'real world' connections. For me, the technical limitations and no personal need to move away from stored games hold streaming back for now, but that's just me. Could be it finds its niche and takes off.. we'll see!
Quote from: BrotherTobious;437978All reasonable reason why not to but l want to see what it is like and I think it is worth a punt. They still have l some delopment time.
You and me both :thumb:
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
Quote from: OldBloke;437980You and me both :thumb:
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
Me 3, open to the idea, after all, things only improve over time.
Interesting angle. Last sentence noted.
https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/07/can-we-talk-about-how-stadia-absolutely-nailed-its-pricing-model-opinion/
A good video lots of tech info and more about how the subs work etc it is interesting but seems it is mostly tv or phone rather than running on your rig at the start.
[video=youtube;eouqoIur5c4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eouqoIur5c4[/video]
Well? Who's already returned?
My pack arrived yesterday and I've tried a few things. So I somehow thought that the pro version got you unlimited access to the games for the time you are subscribed, like XBox Ultimate. Ohhhhh no is doesn't. You pay for everything even with the subscription.
2 games are free, Destiny 2 and some Japaenese Fighting game called Samurai Shodown. All the others, come at a price, but
1) Got the Chromecast working, took a bit of faffing, codes and keycombinations to get it all synchronised with the controller.
2) Tried Destiny 2, controllers for FPS suck, that'll take quite a bit of getting used to for me.
3) Chromecast vs PC browsers... Chromecast was a clear winner, mainly due to the smoothness of the camera movement and sharpness.
4) On PC it was still very good, no lag but the 60Hz feeling was very obvious for me, as I get a solid 144Hz on Destiny 2 on the PC
5) Still it was 10x beter than Playstation Now.
6) Tried it on my Pixel Phone, seriously a cable to conenct the controller?!!? A cable they don't even supply in the box. (It needs a USB-C to C). Fortunately the phone charging cable is C to C.
7) On the phone the quality was great, visuals and colour I would say better than PC browser, and as good as the Chormecast.
8) But it froze, a took a few minutes to settle but was playable. My phone is pretty empty of bloating software or background processes. I imagine a phone full of jumk will see some performance impact.
Overall: +for giving Desiting 2 in full, the other game meh. -for no unlimied content with subs -for cable to controller for phone but +for very good performance with the Chromecast and nearly very good with browser.
Price wise, easily the founder pack plus 2 games is very good value, even if you just use the hardware and never the service it's better than retail for the indivudal parts.
Considering it is Day2, I think with time they will only improve on this start.
Nice summary mate.
Seems a lot of people are finding the service lacking, at least for now. Tech has potential, but then this isn't the first time we have seen a promising streaming tech fall by the wayside for one reason or another.
From what I've read, Google has a flop on their hands... but I am aware I tend to read more tech enthusiast stuff and may be missing the opinions of the 'mainstream'. The real question is how long Google sticks with it.. as smilo pointed out they have a habit of abandoning things that aren't going how they had hoped!
I'm keeping my eye on Stadia out of interest, but the reality is it isn't the product for me, at least not in this decade...
I am not feeling quite as sceptical as you Ben because the main difference with Stadia for me is it is vastly superior to any previous attempt at the same product and again, in the gaming industry the first few days after launch are normally a train wreck, here with Stadia the product for me is very well crafted MVP, only more good things will be added.
I also like the use case of taking my favourite games with me without a laptop or PC.
On the browser, 8Mbps was the download consumption for Destiny 2. On Chromecast, to my 4K screen, around 10Mbps average. I need to do slightly more careful monitoring to get better results for this but for sure I wasn't seeing high bandwidth. Of course they suggest bandwidth requirements higher than the minimum in order to cover their backs.
Destiny 2 loads actually faster with Stadia over my own pretty decent PC.
Oh and my Destiny 2 game crashing due to an nVidia bug obviously doesn't happen on Stadia.
Resurrecting this as I've spent all morning playing (crashing) in GRID. It's not the best racing game but on Stadia it's a complete blast. Takes me back to my Sega Saturn/PlayStation 1 days.
I'm not a twitchy 'every millisecond counts' gamer but I saw zero problems with GRID. it just loaded fast and I was straight into blasting around Tokyo and then immediately into the barrier, so nothing much different from my Megadrive days. If there is latency it's not obvious to me and probably not an issue in arcade style games. FPS shooters and the like, who knows but I'll defiantly be getting some arcade/platformer type games for the new TV.
Quote from: smilodon;443664Resurrecting this as I've spent all morning playing (crashing) in GRID. It's not the best racing game but on Stadia it's a complete blast. Takes me back to my Sega Saturn/PlayStation 1 days.
I'm not a twitchy 'every millisecond counts' gamer but I saw zero problems with GRID. it just loaded fast and I was straight into blasting around Tokyo and then immediately into the barrier, so nothing much different from my Megadrive days. If there is latency it's not obvious to me and probably not an issue in arcade style games. FPS shooters and the like, who knows but I'll defiantly be getting some arcade/platformer type games for the new TV.
I'd say that's a fair assessment, I use it with the same pinch of salt. Certainly it works easily well enough to make it a chill in the lounge solution. I feel with the Steam Link the hassle of booting up and getting it going is greater than just going with Stadia.
I did however try it with my old Win10 tablet and the 2.4GHz wifi is useless, doesn't even connect.
I'm fortunate enough to have the TV and router right next to each other so I use the ethernet connection to connect the Chromecast direct to the router.
Quote from: smilodon;443667I'm fortunate enough to have the TV and router right next to each other so I use the ethernet connection to connect the Chromecast direct to the router.
Ideal, cabled is perfect to the Chromecast, and when you use it for 4K even better.
It's all set up and I'm just watching endless 4k YouTube videos with my jaw on the floor :D
I probably need to get your missus to talk to my missus about also buying a random 4K TV.
There's a link for Stadia Pro subscribers that lists all available free games for you if you have andactive subscription or indeed this also lists past games that are still free:
https://stadia.google.com/store/list/2001
Also Submerged, hidden depths, a Stadia only game became free today for pro.
https://stadia.google.com/store/details/3c39a33bbc064308941f9276c38c30e7rcp1/sku/07b0ea07f5554f70a2675fe696b4c9ebp
I've been using my new cheap ChromeBook as a Stadia device whilst travelling and it's awesome. Only issue is that on a ouse if you click both buttons you open th Launcher, and there is no clear wy to stop this happening. Any ideas?
i'm a xbox xcloud guy my self, love playing gamepass games on my mobile they carrying it on my xbox.
Stadia does the same, and will do on your rig and TV. But the xbox pass is a much more mature system. Not heard much about the cloud side.
basically tobi you download the xcloud app on your phone and bluetooth a controller (any bluetooth controller) and u can play gamepass xcloud games on your phone.and soon pc .
[video=youtube;IhT-OBk_nEs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhT-OBk_nEs[/video]
Lets not have a p*ssing competition about Stadia vs Xbox. Stadia stuff in this form and Microsoft in the Xvox forum thanks.
wheres that coming from smilo?, i was just talking about the xcloud , if i'm not aloud to give my opinion then i'll leave , eg. this community.
Apologies I completely misread the thread and it's intent. I wrongly thought a Google vs Microsoft spat was brewing. Reading the thread more carefully I was very wrong. Carry on and ignore me.
And it is so easily done!
What's the phone gameplay like Sneaky? I've never tried it myself, I always figured I'd be too many thumbs in too little screen space, is phone gaming actually feasible or do you end up restricted to certain more suitable game types?
well actually tealeaf its very good, u basically use the phone as your display and use a controller or you can get controllers that fit around your phone.
Quote from: Sneakytiger;443852basically use the phone as your display and use a controller or you can get controllers that fit around your phone.
That's the bit I had not grasped! Thanks Sneaky, now I understand a little better why they might be attractive.
Quote from: TeaLeaf;443853That's the bit I had not grasped! Thanks Sneaky, now I understand a little better why they might be attractive.
It also works very well on a cheap Chromebook with a nice clear display. I use mine for Stadia and having a little more real estate than a phone is more comfortable.
Stadia seems to have a few rather good offers right now.
Buy Cyberpunk and get a Stadia Controller and Chromecast Ultra free.
https://stadia.google.com/game/cyberpunk2077
Borderlands 3:
https://stadia.google.com/store/details/be080ad40b434ca289166031d3e88623rcp1/sku/26b18a6d45254ea79afdce75b76ddabbp
Quite good for a tenner.
Whilst we're talking about comparisons. GEForce Now allows you to link to Epic, Steam or GOG and they wil literally run games you own on other platforms on their streaming network. That is a very flexible thing IMHO. It also has native ChromeOS support. Gotta say, setting it up and running Control from my Epic account was easy. It even enabled Ray Tracing High and felt responsive to a level better than running 1440p on my 1080Ti gfx PC. I got it as a 1 year freedbie with the 3080.
That for me would be the clincher. If Google and others followed Nvidia and had a monthly subscription where as long as you owned a game from a recognised source you could stream it over their service then I'd be sold for ever.
I do wonder if this is the very beginning of the equivalent of the death of DVD and Blue Ray. Netflix, Sky and Amazon have killed the solid media rental industry in a few years. I think sooner or later technology will win out and maybe gaming rigs in general, be they Xbox, PlayStation or PC will go the way of Blockbuster, DVD rentals and Blue Ray?
It seems telling that a company like Nvidia, which lives from making graphics cards are at the forefront of developing Streaming gaming. Maybe they know their gaming GPU business has a limited lifespan and don't want to become the next Blockbuster Video?
I don't see stadia replacing consoles or pcs anytime soon, were not going to going to a future LAN with just a chrome tablet in hand, streaming services are ok for playing on your mobile or tv, but I cant see the big company's standing by while google puts them out of business.
I don't think companies like Google, Microsoft or Nvidia are going to worry that much about whether we have a good time at our LAN. They are going to make billions and not even know we exist. All these companies seem to be working on or releasing streaming services that do not require much in the way of hardware to run.
First it was music that had fairly low requirements for streaming. Just a few megabytes per song. Now we can all stream decent quality music straight over the internet to our phones, computers and media devices. High street music stores selling physical media (CD's and vinyl) are gone, or have become very niche. Artists and labels have had to bite the bullet and accept that almost all music is now rented and streamed and not bought on physical media. That's where their revenue is and while the whole Napster Wars thing showed what happens when you try to hold back the advance of technology everyone is pretty much on board with this now.
Then came visual media. Much higher bandwidth requirements are required but as soon as streaming became a thing Netflix rose to become a multi billion dollar company while Blockbuster Video became nothing. Now we're asking for that streaming in 4K. Companies know it's pointless to try to say "no it's too much bandwidth, you'll have to do without." As soon as just one company says "Yes we can do that for a sensible cost" it's all over. We get to stream 4k content and anyone else who holds out becomes another Blockbuster. Again Netflix and Amazon already offer plenty of 4K content.
We also had SAAS (software as a service) No one buys software in a box any more and many applications don't run on our computers at all. Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, Gmail, Outlook, a mass of business software. The list is endless. I'd argue more software runs on remote servers than actual desktop machines. I very happily use a Chromebook and almost everything I do on it is cloud based.
Now we have computer gaming. Most of our game libraries sit with Steam, Epic etc Only the games we actually play sit on a hard drive. Likewise consoles can download game direct to a console from a library of our owned games.
So we don't 'need' iPods, CD players, Blue-Ray players or shelves full of software any more. Companies that only sold those things and didn't evolve are dead, New companies that saw the opportunity are billion dollar firms.
The last bastion of needing to own a powerful and expensive physical machine to run or play something is gaming, itself a multi billion dollar industry. We still need to buy consoles, graphics cards, PC's etc. But now for the first time we mostly have the bandwidth to stream the games direct to a screen. It seems inevitable that at some point (sooner rather than later IMHO) we will move away from downloading games to consoles and high end PC's and will use Stadia, X cloud, PlayStation Now, Nvidia Go. The technology might not be quite there yet but blink and it will be. All we will need a 4K monitor or TV, a Sonos bar and a fibre optic broadband service and we're good to go.
Already the big players are lining up to take our subscriptions. So I do think as with music, movies, software and Thanos... "It's Inevitable" that things are changing and changing fast. We may be seeing the last of the generations of consoles and gaming PC's. That Microsoft and Sony are moving into the game streaming, platform independent world is very telling indeed. I'm sure both would just love to be gatekeepers to their services, get out of consumer products and just rake in the money. It's widely believed that Microsoft make almost zero profit (https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/251038-theres-no-profit-margin-microsoft-xbox-one-x) on their console and likewise probably Sony. They make the big bucks licencing games on their platforms. It's a no brainer to get rid of the annoyance of making hardware for huge effort and precious little profit if these companies can invest that money in server farms and just stream it to us direct.
Thomas Watson the president of IBM in 1943 famously said
Quote"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
It's often sited as one of the dumbest technology predictions of all times but I'd argue it was an inspired view of the future. Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Microsoft. :norty:
Should I still buy a expensive pc or just pay the monthly stadia sub?
Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk
I have no idea. All I'm saying is that I think in the future games will be streamed directly over the Internet meaning we won't have to blow loads of money on hardware. At what point someone moves across if at all is relative. If I had invested heavily in Microsoft and Xbox games I might be inclined to look at subscribing to the XCloud service and not Stadia.
The concern in all this is exclusivity. If we can only play game A with a subscription to Google and game B with a subscription to Microsoft etc etc then that would not be fun. It would be nice for games to be agnostic in that way but I sadly don't see the gamers interests being put before the shareholders, as is the way of things.
Its is completely up to you, there is no right answer. It all depends on your situation, I am using my Stadia for one game atm cause it will do the game more justice than my rig. I want a new rig and need a new rig, but I just dont have the funds atm.
I dont know why you personally would use the Stadia as you have the xbox cloud pass etc and the pricing on that is much better than Stadia imo.
These are all options that are open to you, you have decide what you are happy to use or not happy to use. Some like the stadia, some loth it, some will play on rigs some will use consoles. If you are happy and it gives you access to what you want to play then your a winner.
I agree with Smilo, but I think the overall time scale will be longer, and of course when this stuff gets really good at streaming there will still need some sort of kit or unit or subscribe you have to have.
Quote from: Sneakytiger;443888Should I still buy a expensive pc or just pay the monthly stadia sub?
Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk
Well you could buy a Chromecast and use a service to play all your Steam and Other content. Very good for those who don’t want a big ole ATX.
I think the idea has become a viable option now. I like what nVidia are doing although I use Stadia more up to now.
Google Closes Stadia Game Studios (https://www.engadget.com/google-stadia-game-studios-shut-down-montreal-los-angeles-201811811.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIadI-CPlUToYwAGR8KGF5SngBHxNkJuZTMnGAyHLg5xqJ-tS50i0y2MxXtujYGuoREbu6TmKPSV-ogf3ZUjJBjOHuw1EcZfWGE7o1nqAI_N7LcmUYQwVZc7qsuE6d5Vc1Z6ok5J1zoXNsNUDpa89H7ja8cnaGtJLUn7FTg-u44J).
This only means Google themselves are no longer interested in producing games for the platform, not that they are changing their support for 3rd party games.
However... I can't help but think it isn't a good thing? If Stadia had the uptake they wanted, they would surely have kept this going... Makes me thing it is underperforming for them.
Any who, I still think Stadia was doomed from the word go, and further crippled by some really naff anti-consumer decisions (already own a game? Too bad. Buy it again on Stadia or GTFO). That said it is likely many who have been enjoying it have already had their money's worth?
I continue to watch with interest, from the side-lines. :D
Likewise. I got a free Stadia and have an account but don't pay the monthly sub. I bought GRID so I can race cars on the big TV but that's it.
Although a bit of a Google fan boy, I do worry that Google have dropped so many of their once 'great' ideas and left users high and dry. Stadia might be another product Google would bin without a care if they felt the were not getting the bang for their buck they anticipated.
But for every Google+ there is a Google Photos and for every GReader there is a YouTube, so here's hoping
https://kotaku.com/google-stadia-streaming-failing-shutdown-report-stream-1848487185
Sadly not unsurprising. It's good that some companies keep trying new stuff and keep
innovating, but Google are seriously getting a reputation for this sort of thing. I'm going to think hard about buying into
their next big thing. That being said my house is full of Google WiFi, Nests and speakers!
When something hits Google usually does it really well and for the long term, but when they miss
it's money down the drain.
Unusre how it's currently a miss though.
Reading reddit,it's been doom and glood for Stadia since day 1.
BUT Amazon Luna just launched but fizzled?
MS xCloud has the gaming catalog but not the streaming capabiltiy.
GFN has queue times and limited gaming sessions (1 hour?)
My personal experience of Stadia is gold - admitedly I did invest in two Ubiquiti AP's to ensure *reliable* stream to my bedroom TV.
I strongly believe that this gaming experience is the future for consoles ... maybe not so much for PC.
I, for one, fully enjoyed playing ESO on holidays on a chromebook.
It's also far more complicated to just close off a gaming service that people have bought products from. Google would have to secure an alternative means of delivery if they closed Stadia, otherwise at least in the EU there would be complications. It's not like Bathesda or EA stopping the online servers for games they don't want to pay into any longer, this is real product bought and the subscription is just the performance uplift.
Google have killed products stone dead that are in active use and have left users with nothing - Google Wave, Google Reader, Google +, YouTube Originals, Google My Maps... etc.
They killed a whole load more services and products, but often rolled them into new and existing ones. Some were also killed off because no one actually used them. But if you were a member of a still thriving Google+ community for example, then tough.
The killed by google website lists over 250+ products and services dumped by Google at some point. So they do have some history of doing this.
The concept behind Stadia, Nvidia Shield etc is solid, I agree. I just don't think Stadia will be up there with the leaders, publishing new games, expanding its service and it catalogue or bringing out new and better hardware. Shutting down their own Game Studio wasn't encouraging and apparently the whole service is massively underperforming (although that comes from journalists and not any official figures I've seen). google are also very evasive about what they have planned, just trotting out marketing nonsense and referring back to what they have already done. A company with a vibrant compelling product that they are forging ahead with, with great plans and offers coming, would sound very different IMHO
I doubt they will kill Stadia dead but I fear it will end up languishing with no serious resources being put into it and staff being diverted away to other projects. Steam Link comes to mind :sad: