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Android Central - Google Stadia's launch has been nothing short of a nightmare

CyberPanda

Banned
Treating Stadia like a live service means that Google practically launched a platform in beta.

JENNIFER LOCKE
27 Nov 2019

Were you excited for Google Stadia? A promise of gaming anywhere on any device, regardless of specs. It's a lofty vision that Google sold, and one that certainly seems far off from what we got in reality. The service still has a long, long way to go before it can be a viable product for the masses.

Were you excited for Google Stadia? A promise of gaming anywhere on any device, regardless of specs. It's a lofty vision that Google sold, and one that certainly seems far off from what we got in reality. The service still has a long, long way to go before it can be a viable product for the masses.

Google just can't catch a break. First we found out shortly before launch that Stadia would launch with only 12 games, which was quickly bumped to 22 games after Google heard outcry regarding the sparse offerings, because apparently the numbers and release dates are arbitrary and it can pull games out of a magic hat whenever it'd like. Google said developers wouldn't need to do anything special to get existing games to work on Stadia, anyways. Then we found out it would be missing several crucial features upon release. And after release, players discovered that it was causing their Chromecast Ultras to overheat and turn off — one of the few devices at launch that supports Stadia.

And let's not forget that due to a translation error or ill-informed social media intern, Stadia Pro members thought (for at least a few hours) that they would not be able to keep any games that they bought using their Pro exclusive discounts. This turned out to be false — you will be allowed to keep all games bought with a discount using a Pro membership even after your subscription lapses — but the damage of misinformation circulating around has been done. You can't erase that. Misinformation spreads like wildfire on the internet.

To put it into perspective, this was an important launch for Google that could have revolutionized the gaming landscape, and the response has been… quiet. Aside from people outright roasting the service immediately before and after launch, talk about Stadia has kind of fallen off. People just aren't discussing it. Now more than ever, people's attention and time are fleeting. To not be able to capitalize on word of mouth in a big way is disconcerting. Unless you're a huge video game fan who already follows the industry, you probably haven't even heard of Google Stadia, much less know what it is.
Nothing quite sums up Stadia's launch like this statement from Russell Holly in our review:
Out of the box, you get a Founder's Edition Stadia Controller, a charging cable with wall plug, and a Chromecast Ultra. The USB cable in the box is USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other end, which is an odd decision when the only phones supported by Stadia right now all use USB-C to charge it just like the Stadia Controller. That means, instead of including a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, which is something Google already does with its Pixel phones, Stadia makes you go look for another cable if you want to connect the controller to your phone to play.

Google's problems are only going to get worse the more it deflects The company said that ISPs will solve for those pesky data caps. That developers are the reason games aren't streaming at 4K. But those are both issues that Google needs to handle. Not the other way around. It can't absolve itself from blame and hope for the best.

But don't underestimate the service just because of its botched launch. It is by no means dead on arrival. Google is treating it like a live service that continues to evolve, and it could become amazing with the right support. It just isn't right now. The service quality is hit or miss at best, and that's a far cry from the vision that Google sold when it first announced Stadia.

It certainly wouldn't be the first platform to stumble at the start. Microsoft reportedly spent $1.15 billion to fix the Xbox 360's infamous Red Ring of Death. Let's just hope Google Stadia can find its place near the finish line.

 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Wait didnt Voost recently make a thread saying the 175k download mean its a huge success?
I am confused now.

/s
 

Meowzers

Member
As long as physical hardware is around, I'll stick to that.

I'd rather stream a PC on my ancient laptop just like Shadow Tech. Won't be long where you can stream an iPhone 11 on a fuckin Kit-Kat anyway.
 

n0razi

Member
Im willing to pick one up on a firesale to try it out... similar to the Valve Controller that were on clearance for $5 a few days ago
 

ZywyPL

Banned
Steam has been garbage for half a decade untill it got into semi-decent state, and look at it now. Stadia has been out for a week and rushed as hell, but give it just half of that time to develop and it will easily win over an average Joe with its "hey Google, launch Fifa/CoD/GTA" etc. They just need to make it good enough for now, like sub-100ms and FullHD or something.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Wait didnt Voost recently make a thread saying the 175k download mean its a huge success?
I am confused now.

/s

The next-gen consoles are going to sell that much within the first moments of the preorders opening up, each.
 
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Grinchy

Banned
Im willing to pick one up on a firesale to try it out... similar to the Valve Controller that were on clearance for $5 a few days ago
Well, there supposedly exists a day when they are going to let millions of people stream 1080p games without any monthly subscription or hardware purchase. When that totally happens you won't even have to put $5 down!
 

Inviusx

Member
The Stadia reddit has been an endless source of joy for me these past few weeks, watching post purchase rationalisation slowly fade away among the hopeful.

I especially love reading exchanges like this:

Joebob30 - "Help, my Chromecast is overheating and it might actually be a fire hazard"

Stadialover69 - "Just set your TV to game mode"
 
This trainwreck is the gift that keeps on giving. The best part is that all of it is self-inflicted. Google has no reason to rush this out but they did anyways. Their obliviousness and ignorance about the market is priceless.

Stadia will be fine case study on how NOT to launch your product.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Good. Kill it with fire.

If it doesn’t kill you in fire first.

IjIg3In.jpg
 
Here I am, still waiting for reviews of Stadia being played WITHOUT Chromecast.

The whole point was 'convenience' so I could play destiny on my phone while on the move. Which has turned out to be a complete fucking lie by Google. Complete lie and no one is calling them out.

Why stream a laggy, expensive, old as fuck game in my house, when i could just turn on the PC, X or Pro?

Fucking lying scumbags should be taken to task and those who believed that shit should be publicly flogged for mental deficiencies.
 

Nero_PR

Banned
Here I am, still waiting for reviews of Stadia being played WITHOUT Chromecast.

The whole point was 'convenience' so I could play destiny on my phone while on the move. Which has turned out to be a complete fucking lie by Google. Complete lie and no one is calling them out.

Why stream a laggy, expensive, old as fuck game in my house, when i could just turn on the PC, X or Pro?

Fucking lying scumbags should be taken to task and those who believed that shit should be publicly flogged for mental deficiencies.
I saw some reviews with Chrome web browser and on PC gameplay and Phone gameplay (you don't need a Pixel phone, just open a tab on Chrome in your phone). The majority of the reviews I saw, said the mobile experience was the better one when talking about connection stability. But while on the move must be hard to test. You got me curious about that.
 

buizel

Banned
I mean PS4 and Xbox already beat it at game streaming, and you can pick them up for ~$100. Strange they rushed the launch me thinks
 
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