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Google Game Streaming Reveal Thread 'Stadia' (Launching in 2019)

Are you excited for Googles Entry in the Industry!?


  • Total voters
    256

DanielsM

Banned
Price? How much is a Chromecast Pro? 30-50€? I think the app itself will be free on phones, PCs, etc.. The controller maybe 50€. Games as usual or maybe some form of subscription as an option.

There is no information on the subscription, to me it sounded more like you are renting cycles or a Virtual Desktop or stripped virtual desktop.

If I were to guess, you are buying games at maybe a reduced amount, but than you pay Google for running on their hardware. (just guessing, horrible presentation as to how this works)

Sounds like a GeForce competitor at this point.
 
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longdi

Banned
I tried Nvidia Shield outside US and it works ok. I can see my older self, or some one who dont care about best quality, playing streaming games just fine.

So long as Google dont drop this half way, it can be a long term success in NA. They surely will branch out to more countries in years to come.
 

DrNeroCF

Member
Nothing we haven't seen before with onLive and a few others. Project Stream did have an impressive amount of lag, and I don't think I'm close to any data centers.

Streaming just isn't something I can get excited about. If you care enough about graphics at any cost, you probably want to see your own hardware pushing the performance, and if you game casually enough to not mind streaming, you most likely don't care about peak graphics performance. Streaming the best graphics possible is a bit of a conundrum.

I've always thought streaming made the most sense for demos, though. Or quick free to play matches. Paying for the right to stream just never sit well with me.

Though.... get this on the Switch and I might actually care.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
image0.png


can't spell stadia without this.

HARD PASS.

No focus on europe i want to see proof of latency.
4k streaming netflix = not as good as 4k uhd discs.

i pull the bullshit card. sorry guys.
 

cryptoadam

Banned
I didn't watch this so will comment further but so far sounds good and its up to Google to deliver. Lots of promises, but we have to see it in action. AO had decent enough feedback but the question is can this work flawlessly in the wild in real world.

But if it can be GOOD enough then this is a game changer. In 2020 when PS5 and NEXT BOX launch its going to be a hard proposition to put down 399, 499, or even 599 when for 0$ you can stream games. And by then Google will have had a year or so to have this thing operating and working out the kinks.

As far as internet tech goes, at one point we were playing 2 MB files on real player, the idea of a movie streaming at DVD quality was thought of as some pipe dream. I remember watching a crappy 10 second YT video on my flip phone now I can watch high def YouTube hour long videos. Tech will move if there are players pushing it forward. PS Now worked fine for me and I don't have gigabyte internet.

For people who need the best, no latency, no cut corners, own everything ya its not for you. For people who might want to play 1 or 2 games a year this is a game changer.

Of course it has to work, if not its just another OnLive and it will fail. Google tends to make lots of announcments and then they let their projects drop. So if they just give up a year in then its DOA, but if they put the same effort Sony/MS put in then this is going to change the way we game.
 

Domisto

Member
Don't worry it will all be funded by micro transactions. ;)

Or looking at the Youtube model, they'll fill it with ads and have a a paid version ad free. More games will be like Pepsiman.
 

Iced Arcade

Member
IF its priced right AND if it actually can run games 4k/60fps... its going to be really hard for the other companies to shovel $500 boxes with subscriptions down peoples throats.

A lot of "IF's" though
 

Skyr

Member
BTW 4k 60 fps doesn't mean shit. There will be a bitrate sealing that will determine image quality. It will never look as perfect as native IQ.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
It all sounds fantastic. Question is are we ready internet wise for this? Still it's an excellent future proof idea.

They need to market this well though.
 

NoxNyctores

Member
Pass for me, I'm from Argentina, even if it worked relatively fine in other countries, I'm pretty sure it'll take years before stuff like this allows even turn based games to work fine in here

Also knowing Google, this won't last 2 years
 

lifa-cobex

Member
image0.png


can't spell stadia without this.

HARD PASS.

No focus on europe i want to see proof of latency.
4k streaming netflix = not as good as 4k uhd discs.

i pull the bullshit card. sorry guys.
I'm with ya.
Lots of talk about how are we are better than are rivals. No real information about themselves, no real games shown, bandwidth requirements, costs etc.
Gonna guess lots of ports.
8k.....lol.
 

JordanN

Banned
While google "joked" about not having to download games, I think another huge missed opportunity is that you should be able to both download and stream your games.

That's all it would take to finally dethrone consoles and traditional PC.

Otherwise, this is 2013 all over again when Microsoft tried the same thing with Xbox One. Making games online only gives them complete control.

There needs to be some way for games to work both offline and online.

Or hell, they should have just copied the Steam storefront. Make it so you can still download your games but you have complete access to their renderfarms. That would have been a game changer.
 
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Solarstrike

Member
Google wants to do to gaming what Apple did to the music industry. Plastics (mainly garbage bags and bottles) litter the worlds oceans which could be used for collectable cartridges, CD's, albums, collectable statues, toys, yet the billion dollar conglomorates ignore it. Sad. Well, maybe Google can now make a game about cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch..
 

DanielsM

Banned
IF its priced right AND if it actually can run games 4k/60fps... its going to be really hard for the other companies to shovel $500 boxes with subscriptions down peoples throats.

A lot of "IF's" though

You'll still be paying, just like Nvidia and Shadow Tech, etc. Nvidia GeForce is still in beta their plan at one point was $25 per 20 hours of play time, that is on top of the games you would have to rent or buy. Shadow tech starts at $30 a month, includes no games.
https://lifehacker.com/geforce-now-will-let-you-stream-games-by-the-hour-1823580027

This to me seems more like a Virtual Desktop type experience, but they were so vague its hard to know. You still have to pay for the hardware usage, its just the hardware is theirs and you rent it via subscription.
 
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Calibos

Member
Well, i dont think anyone is ready or capable to take on google. That infrastructure is key here. I dunno what MSs plan is with xcloud, but its gonna be hard to compete with this. Streaming 4k60 (up to 8k eventually), with the possibility of using as many gpus as you want, each at 10.6TF.......

Having your shit available on everything, in high quality, all the time....

This is god damned impressive.


Not arguing against, because this is impressive, but don't oversell Google until we can get it in our hands. IBM, Amazon and Microsoft have larger cloud computing networks and revenue. 4K 60fps is going to be possible on Xcloud too at some point as it's just scalability.

8K will be a pipe dream for streaming games and movies without latency for quite a while still.

The most impressive things I saw today were the Google integration and the fact that each Stadia instance will have that 10.7 TFlops performance. Everything else is a wash right now until we have all players on the field.
 
I'm surprised that they partnered with AMD and not Nvidia. Hopefully, local latency will be minimized by using Linux on the backend. I have gotten impressive results with Google Stream using a controller. M/KB wasn't bad but I was able to tell after a while.

Vega 56 is 10.5 TF folks. Don't expect miracles!!!!!
 
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Verdanth

Member
The only thing that is interesting for me is how they choose to price everything related to this.

The price is free. They reduce loading times so you can have those sweet videos ads right between your games.

"You've been playing for over a hour now, take a break and watch this amazing video ad."

Want ads off? Here buy us a sweet subscription.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I tried this recently in beta. I have 0ms latency gigabit fiber, and I assume I'm sitting directly on an edge node in Austin. The latency was very noticeable.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
I'm with ya.
Lots of talk about how are we are better than are rivals. No real information about themselves, no real games shown, bandwidth requirements, costs etc.
Gonna guess lots of ports.
8k.....lol.
lol indeed
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Well.. its a streaming thing.

Personal thoughts:

+ I like the idea of one click gaming in the browser in a YT video. The concept is actually fairly brilliant and it does provide quick access to new experiences, anywhere. But its just that, a concept.

- The idea of one click gaming in the browser in a YT video. After all, you first need to pay for the game (or a subscription), so that's one additional screen you need to go through. Then you probably need to log in (Either through Steam or the external launchers, or Google Play) which by default will be another screen (Which i am sure you can automate). So no, it will never be ''instant gaming in less than 5 seconds'', unless you have already paid and played the game already. By which point i would ask myself: ''Why watch gameplay of this game when i have this game already on Stadia and i can play it instantly?'' The only edge case for that is for walkthrough purposes and what not. And though a lot of gameplay is like that on YT, that seems like a really odd edge case to rely on from Google's POV.

- You. Do. Not. Own. The. Game. As DeepEnigma DeepEnigma pointed out, you are simply buying a license to a game, and nothing more. Similar to Steam, really. But Steam is an established platform, Stadia is just that, a new platform. And if Google Play is anything to get by, Quality Assurance is not Google's top priority. Plus, its Google. They want all your data's.

- Third party dependence. Actually Google has a notch over Steam here considering Google in general is quite a bit larger than Steam, so the worry that Google will disappear one day is slimmer than say Valve. Nevertheless, being dependent on a third party for your license is never an ideal solution, just look at Bioshock for iOS on that.

- Latency. I know, Google loves to throw around that it can provide ultra low latency and a platform for everyone, but for whom? Only folks with top internet connections? In that sense the pre-hype footage was terrible as it showcased kids in less financially sound countries playing soccer on the street. Does Google geniunely think these homes that they want to connect to have the money to have the high speed internet needed to get this low latency they speak of? :goog_unsure::goog_unsure::goog_unsure:

Conclusion:
As much as i hoped it was a console, its a streaming thing. And with that, it inherits every flaw that is common place with streaming.

But. If there is one company on the face of this Earth that could pull off latency-free global AAA gaming through streaming, than it has to be Google. So i wouldn't instantly label this a DOA in my book. It can work from Google's POV.

And although i do think a lot of consumers will have zero problems being ever the more dependent on third parties (Where is Idiocracy really?) i also think a significant amount of people will dislike the streaming only option that Stadia provides, for the reasons outlined above.

I will point out with Steam, at least you can play your single-player games offline as well as back them up to a medium or other drives.
 
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longdi

Banned
Im sure Google just needs to setup or upgrade a data center in your country, and boom you stream games easy.
Right now Google has plenty of search data centers around the globe, so i can see their economies of scale here.

It is Sony and Nintendo that may lose out in 10 years time.
 

nkarafo

Member
BTW 4k 60 fps doesn't mean shit. There will be a bitrate sealing that will determine image quality. It will never look as perfect as native IQ.
I also smell bad frame times/pacing.

When i get frame time issues on my PC, i can usually fix it. How will i be able to fix it when i stream?
 
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Skyr

Member
I tried this recently in beta. I have 0ms latency gigabit fiber, and I assume I'm sitting directly on an edge node in Austin. The latency was very noticeable.

Well there ya go. Controller gameplay does cushion the input lag a little bit but on a PC with keyboard and mouse it will feel unplayable. Especially with FPS games like DOOM.
 

Jayjayhd34

Member
BTW 4k 60 fps doesn't mean shit. There will be a bitrate sealing that will determine image quality. It will never look as perfect as native IQ.

No one saying it will, and majority of gamers probably don't care. Look at how Netflix has shaped the industry even though you can get better quality buying them pysically. People don't always go for the best done right this could easily be the Netflix of gaming.
 
While google "joked" about not having to download games, I think another huge missed opportunity is that you should be able to both download and stream your games.

That's all it would take to finally dethrone consoles and traditional PC.

Otherwise, this is 2013 all over again when Microsoft tried the same thing with Xbox One. Making games online only gives them complete control.

There needs to be some way for games to work both offline and online.

Or hell, they should have just copied the Steam storefront. Make it so you can still download your games but you have complete access to their renderfarms. That would have been a game changer.
Download it to what? You would need a machine capable of what their instanced hardware does.. Not sure what point there is to download a game that you would still need to stream is.
 
I tried this recently in beta. I have 0ms latency gigabit fiber, and I assume I'm sitting directly on an edge node in Austin. The latency was very noticeable.
Basically, the user experience will always vary from user to user. Also, according to Digital Foundry, AC:O had about 10-15 more ms latency than Xbox One X version and about 80ms or so more than PC version so you have to assume that they will also add 80ms above base latency.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
"The future of gaming is not a box, it's a reoccurring subscription service, maybe! Oh And, we're listening, no seriously we are, Google Assistant and mic built in. Man you fuck a lot, huh?"
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
my main scare is that devs might adjust gameplay in future developed games to work with the lag,
say bye bye to the fighting genre ..
 

Iced Arcade

Member
You'll still be paying, just like Nvidia and Shadow Tech, etc. Nvidia GeForce is still in beta their plan at one point was $25 per 20 hours of play time, that is on top of the games you would have to rent or buy. Shadow tech starts at $30 a month, includes no games.
https://lifehacker.com/geforce-now-will-let-you-stream-games-by-the-hour-1823580027

This to me seems more like a Virtual Desktop type experience, but they were so vague its hard to know. You still have to pay for the hardware usage, its just the hardware is theirs and you rent it via subscription.
Like i said... a lot of "if's"

Myself I'm definitely not convinced... but im at least listening
 

DanielsM

Banned
So its nothing then.

Pretty much. Its so limited as to the information that its crazy, are they offering full desktop? How are games played, rental/subscription or purchased? What is Google charging for access to the platform hardware if you don't purchase games? Can the games than be installed on a local PC exe?

As I watched the announcement live stream stutter and flicker on my pc, the irony was not lost on me

Me as well, part way thru my video stream froze up from youtube.
 
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That colour palette demonstration was horrific to be honest. Imagine being a professional photographer and thinking 'hey, this is a good image, but you know what will make it better? A Prisma filter'. In fact, I remember a thread on gaf about the very thing shown on a website that mixed images like lions with thunder, was a cool website. Anyone remember it?

Apart from that, I thought it was an interesting keynote. The mystery about exactly how you are supposed to enter a game was glaring, like when you see an advert and at the bottom is 'this sequence has been shortened'. Show me how you are supposed to pay to enter the game before entering the game.

I had two prominent thoughts during the keynote: 1) If this takes off, Steam is going to get hit hard. I think not being able to download games will save the Switch. 2) This tech looks like a good bet for a fully realised, realistically populated open world game that could make Cyberpunk 2077 look very dated, very quickly.

edit: and the pcmasterrace has become the hardwaremasterrace :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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dottme

Member
It might be an interesting technology in the future.
But with my current internet connection, it isn’t for me.
 
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Mackers

Member
I tried OnLive, it was crap. I've tried PSNow, its crap. I had a Steam Link in my house all connected via ethernet and while there was no latency there was very obvious image compression in fast paced games. How many times do these companies have to cry wolf before we all stop listening?

Streaming is shit for gaming, even locally.
 
Meh. I have no interest in streaming my games, so this is hardly interesting to me. However, I am interested in the technology itself and the new possibilities it opens as shared on the keynote. Alas, I won't believe anything about this working until it's out in the real world. What kind of internet connection is required for this to work? How much do we have to pay for the games? Also, they didn't show any games. I mean, that is what gaming is all about, the games. Clearly they wanted to highlight that Stadia is all about providing a powerful streaming service with the best graphics to anyone, anywhere, but as we've learned from the past the games is all what matters in a gaming platform. The games are the name of the game. If anything, I think they show their inexperience in the industry by relying solely on the technology itself as their main selling point. Can you imagine Sony, Xbox or Nintendo unveiling their new platforms without showing any of the new and exciting games you will be able to play there? That would be terrible...

On a side note, I see no one talking about how Stadia instances are running on Linux. This means any dev participating on this thing will be building their games to run on a Linux machine, which means they could also release their games from the get go to be playable on Linux. Could this finally be the fabled year of Linux? :messenger_tongue:
 

nkarafo

Member
Do normies even care about input lag?

All my friends play with their consoles on laggy TVs and they don't even know Game Modes exist.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Well, i dont think anyone is ready or capable to take on google. That infrastructure is key here. I dunno what MSs plan is with xcloud, but its gonna be hard to compete with this. Streaming 4k60 (up to 8k eventually), with the possibility of using as many gpus as you want, each at 10.6TF.......

Having your shit available on everything, in high quality, all the time....

This is god damned impressive.
You would think damn expensive too then...
 

Skyr

Member
No one saying it will, and majority of gamers probably don't care. Look at how Netflix has shaped the industry even though you can get better quality buying them pysically. People don't always go for the best done right this could easily be the Netflix of gaming.

I get that a lot of casuals won't care about IQ and Input lag. That's their target audience anyway as it's the majority of the market.

I'm just concerned that the enthusiasts will ultimately be the losers.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I guess I can see this working for the casual crowd that doesn't want a console or to build a PC and just wants to play games from their phones. You need the kinds of people who don't even use Game Mode on their TVs because they "don't see" the input lag to jump into a streaming service like this.

I'm just not convinced that this can replace actual console and PC gaming yet.
 
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This was as bad as the Xbox One Reveal. No exclusives, you could see the input lag while he was playing, google assistant button, a bunch of focus on streaming and youtube.
There is no reason at ALL to buy this when you have a consolle, this will crash hard and be abandoned in 2 years. smh people said there would be sega games...
 
That colour palette demonstration was horrific to be honest. Imagine being a professional photographer and thinking 'hey, this is a good image, but you know what will make it better? A Prisma filter'. In fact, I remember a thread on gaf about the very thing shown on a website that mixed images like lions with thunder, was a cool website. Anyone remember it?

Apart from that, I thought it was an interesting keynote. The mystery about exactly how you are supposed to enter a game was glaring, like when you see an advert and at the bottom is 'this sequence has been shortened'. Show me how you are supposed to pay to enter the game before entering the game.

I had two prominent thoughts during the keynote: 1) If this takes off, Steam is going to get hit hard. I think not being able to download games will save the Switch. 2) This tech looks like a good bet for a fully realised, realistically populated open world game that could make Cyberpunk 2077 look very dated, very quickly.

They currently are using Vega56 GPU or FirePro variant going by the 10.5TF. You will get a much better experience locally for the most part. Also, Switch needs to invest more in having more games available through cloud streaming because their tech is a limiting factor.
 
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