Google Stadia

[Tonneau]

Streaming can only really work for games that aren't dependent on precise controls (e.g. turn based games) unless they can somehow find a way around the input lag problem. Unless they discovered some sort of miracle technology that none of us know about, they won't be able to get around this issue.

 

[Warden of the North]

Any bit of latency will kill it.

My internet isnt nearly reliable for it, so its a non startee for me

 

[Hammettf2b]

Xbox Scarlett and PS5 face new battle from Google 'Yeti' streaming console

 

[Suxnet]

Google is the dominant web advertiser
Google is the dominant search engine
Android is the dominant mobile OS
Chrome is the dominant web browser

The idea of a "Netflix for games" sounds interesting to me, but the aforementioned market dominance of Google makes me concerned. Don't let Google own the internet.

 

[sabresfan129103]

This has been rumored for a while, but google finally unveiled their streaming service at GDC. It all sounds pretty similar to Onlive from a few years back except you need no hardware. Games can be streamed to PC, laptop, or smartphone. No pricing has been announced yet.

 

[syz]

There's no reason for this thing to exist yet.

 

[Warden of the North]

Complete non starter with my internet.

Also, without exclusives it will die.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Complete non starter with my internet.

Also, without exclusives it will die.

Theyre starting their own development studio apparently

 

[Common Sense]

Even with pretty good internet I had enough jitters and input lag that I couldn't deal with PS Now. I'm assuming this will be the same story.

 

[Commander Clueless]

There's no reason for this thing to exist yet.

It's really cool tech, but....as expected, it doesn't seem to be ready for prime time.

Complete non starter with my internet.

Also, without exclusives it will die.

I can just see them purchasing exclusives and having them flop due to latency issues....a dark timeline.

 

[Warden of the North]

Have they announced Skyrim as a launch title yet?

 

[Warden of the North]

Theyre starting their own development studio apparently

Yea, good luck with that.

Xbox knocked it out of the park with Halo as an exclusive, and it didnt have to deal with the inherent issues that this thing is going to have. It took a long time for Xbox to become established as a contender to Sony even nailing its launch exclusive.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Yea, good luck with that.

Xbox knocked it out of the park with Halo as an exclusive, and it didnt have to deal with the inherent issues that this thing is going to have. It took a long time for Xbox to become established as a contender to Sony even nailing its launch exclusive.

To be fair, the Xbox was a colossal failure. Lost billions, and I really wouldn't be surprised if the 360 lost similar to that amount after all the faulty units got sorted, Google's just doing a streaming service, which is relatively easy to make profitable. I think PS Now even makes money for Sony. Pulls in like 150 million a year.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Even with pretty good internet I had enough jitters and input lag that I couldn't deal with PS Now. I'm assuming this will be the same story.

I had similar issues on the 7 day trial when I tried it out, latency but also compression artifacts.

Even on my in-home steam streaming, certain graphical effects like god rays and bloom turn the stream into a blocky mess. Simple games like Valkyries chronicles look fine, but say Nioh for example with all the weather and lighting effects, no chance.

 

[syz]

PS Now has improved but it's still very much relegated to certain types of games (i.e. games that have lenient input windows or don't require much by way of reaction times), afaik.

 

[Beau Knows]

This could work amazing well for strategy games and other slow-paced games. Since the game is running on a powerful server somewhere instead of locally couldn't the games that are made specifically for is look much better than other pc/consoles games? If so I could see the killer app being a civilization type game with far better graphics, play it one your pc at home but play a few turns during lunch at work or on the bus on your phone, laptop or tablet.

But with that said, I think if this ever really takes off Microsoft is going to be the one to get it right first. I think they're setting themselves up to be the leaders in this area. They have access to a huge network of servers with Azure and unlike Google they have a large library of popular games and game franchises that they can lean on. They're building towards being able to offer this service properly by starting with simply offering games the old fashioned way - by downloading them to a number of different devices (xbox, pc, phones and possibly even Nintendo Switch soon). So when/if the infrastructure is ready to make this viable for a large market Microsoft should be able to offer things like their existing game pass services through streaming and they can bring an existing customer base with them.

 

[RandV]

This could work amazing well for strategy games and other slow-paced games. Since the game is running on a powerful server somewhere instead of locally couldn't the games that are made specifically for is look much better than other pc/consoles games? If so I could see the killer app being a civilization type game far better graphics, play it one your pc at home but play a few turns during lunch at work or on the bus on your phone, laptop or tablet.

Strategy games are what I've always wanted for this type of service but while you have a dedicated base I don't think it's enough of the market to justify the service. 'Triple A' games have the market but those are typically action games where latency is important, and then you have other games that have a huge market and no latency issues like CCG's but those don't require a lot of hardware power so you can just run them straight on your phone or whatever.

It's certainly a nice service and should take off at some point but it will be interesting to see what kind of market it can carve out for itself.

 

[RandV]

Complete non starter with my internet.

Also, without exclusives it will die.

Forget about exclusives, I think the point here is that whatever device you have a browser on you can plug a controller into it and just start playing Assassin's Creed or whatever. There's a bunch of things they'll have to get right to make it work but this is a service, not a console, and technically should slide right into the PC market.

The part I'm most curious is what the price point will be and how they can make it work with devs. Like forget about them handling the hardware and streaming it for a minute, suppose you're handling your own hardware and Steam gives you an option where you pay a monthly fee and can access any game in their library. What price point do they need to set to keep all the devs on there in business? And now back to the streaming, what price point do they need to set to keep the devs in business and provide users with high powered server farms to run the games being streamed?

Unless you still have to buy the games, but I thought I recalled them in another thread talking about this being a 'netflix' of gaming. So maybe I just got that stuck in my head and that isn't what they're doing here.

 

[Hammettf2b]

 

[Hammettf2b]

Apparently the controller connects via wifi directly to the Google server, not your device. This will "sync" the image on the screen with your inputs, but will definitely create visual latency.

 

[KingBran]

Gamepass is very good but like mentioned you need the proper hardware. The idea of streaming is to play on low powered hardware like apple tv or smart TVs or laptops.

There's potential, but even steam in home streaming is fully of blocky compression artifacts (at least for effects heavy ganes) I really really doubt that Google's streaming is going to be free of that.

GAME PASS IS NOT A STREAMING SERVICE.

Please people. Stop saying it.

Saying "its good but has issues." Just proves you are making it up.

 

[aleshemsky83]

GAME PASS IS NOT A STREAMING SERVICE.

Please people. Stop saying it.

Saying "its good but has issues." Just proves you are making it up.

Re-read what I said genius.

 

[KingBran]

Re-read what I said genius.

Gamepass has nothing to do with streaming games or is in anyway dependant on you network infratructure / capabilites. Doesn't change what I said. Gamepass has nothing to do with streaming games like you implied.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Gamepass has nothing to do with streaming games or is in anyway dependant on you network infratructure / capabilites. Doesn't change what I said. Gamepass has nothing to do with streaming games like you implied.

Your reading comprehension needs work. I have gamepass right now on my PC. I know it doesn't use streaming and I didn't imply it. Read closer, I'm literally responding to your post above mine in that first comment.

 

[KingBran]

Your reading comprehension needs work. I have gamepass right now on my PC. I know it doesn't use streaming and I didn't imply it. Read closer, I'm literally responding to your post above mine in that first comment.

Quit acting like I don't know what you are talking about. I get it. Game pass still has nothing to do with streaming. I get what you were saying but you were trying to associate the game pass service with streaming services. There is literally nothing similar between the two.

You can sarcastically call me "genius" and tell me my reading comprehension sucks. I understood exactly what you were saying from the start. Game pass still has absolutely nothing to do with streaming services.

It would be like saying, "I mean goalie pads are needed to play goalie in hockey but the idea is to play sports with a basketball.", two completely different sports that use two completely different forms of equiment.