This may be the inevitable future of the gaming industry. Google Stadia.
What is exactly Google Stadia?
Google Stadia wants to be like Netflix but Netflix with games.
You will be able to play any game on any device. Regardless of the equipment you have.
Maybe you remember Gaikai or OnLive? They failed, but Google says it has the right infrastructure. Of course, Google isn’t alone here. Many companies do it, but Google is the biggest. With Google Stadia everyone can have their own playground at home without a console or powerful computer.
How does it work?
It’s a simple idea but not so easy like music or movie streaming. Cloud gaming requires you to run a game remotely in a data center.
That’s a huge shift. We don't need a console and that's the point.
So you essentially have a PC where you running a game and somewhere a data center sends you game stream over the internet to your screen. Then you are pressing buttons on a controller and sending that input back over the internet.
And all of that happens without lags, at 1080p, 60 frames per second. That's pretty much unbelievable.
Phil Harrison (Team lead of project Google Stadia) says:
No, we can't beat the speed of light, but we can cheat it enough that we can deliver a very, very high performance experience. Google Stadia will be capable of running at true 4K resolution with HDR color at an unrelenting 60 frames per second (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUih5C5rOrA)
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| Phil Harrison - lead of google stadia project - photo by Google |
Essentially, the company is making use of every critical part of its business to turn cloud gaming into a reality.
The first thing is the Chrome browser, and the Chromecast dongle. That will be the means Google gets game stream from the data center and forward right to your TV or whatever screen you're playing. The second part is the Android system. It's the most universal OS on earth. So Google Stadia will run on cell phones and tablets. The third is YouTube.
Imagine that you are watching the gaming player's stream and you can start playing the same game with one click. Or the streamer invites viewers to the game - during the broadcast and you can join it without much problem.
Google Stadia is the future of gaming ... but also the nightmare of graphics card manufacturers and gaming devices.
1. Is Google Stadia the future?
2. Do you think that the project will be accepted by people, or will it end like the abandoned Google Glass?
3. When the project becomes available to everyone, will you buy a subscription?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeFnQrgtZ9k
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-stadia-puts-xbox-one-playstation-4-and-pc-gaming-on-notice/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/22/google-hundreds-of-millions-have-the-bandwidth-to-max-out-stadia-gaming-performance/#1130727e1d9f
https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/22/18273185/google-stadia-games-price-release-date-controller-faq
1. It is possible, but I suppose it will cost much internet transfer, so unless something changes in this matter, Stadia can has several serious problems to overcome in its road to glory.
ReplyDelete2. As I wrote above. It has a potential. And Google Glass has it still also. For now Google Glass has been abandoned but I think in the future it will come back in a more powerfull shape.
3. It depends on the price. I really rarely play games, so if there would be several plans to subscribe for different prices, maybe I would choose some cheap one to play from time to time.
Maybe Google Stadia is the future, but not as close as Google thinks. I don't think that any current technology is able to deliver smooth, 4k gameplay without any input lag. It's really beautiful concept, but also unreal, I think. Another problem is Internet Access. Even now, at a time when we have to download several gigabytes of patches, after all we can play however we want, online or offline. Maybe Stadia will be accepted by more casual gamers, but more traditional ones will be more skeptical. Of course I will buy a subscription, even for a month, only to check if future has already appeared.
ReplyDeleteI believe it could work. I am constantly astonished that this kind of entertainment is popular among adult people, because computer games are still associated with children or teenagers for me. I gave up them when I was not more than 15 and for me it’s wasting of time, so I definitely will not buy a subscription. However I understand why people choose games instead of real life and that’s why I think that branch has future. Will people accept it? It depends on how Google will sell it. People buy everything if they believe it’s worth it or meet their needs (real or produced by sellers). If you make people believe that everyone use it, everyone is happy playing, only oddballs and freaks not using Google Stadia your success is certain. If quality of stream will be excellent players will not abandon the product if they not abandon vision delivered by Google.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Stadia is not a first project like this and I think there will be more similar products in the future. There are few factors that will lead to either its success or a big flop. It highly depends on its input lag and quality users are getting. In theory we could be playing in 4k, but we are streaming video, if stream bitrate will be low the quality of the video will also go down, so it still won't be as good as on regular PC. Additionally it depends on the pricing, if it will be reasonably priced and high end PC hardware will keep its prices as high as it right now it has a chance to succeed.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure yet if I will be buying it, it sounds tempting especially due to lack of space in my flat for high end PC, but on the other hand playing with input lag ruins the fun. I will be waiting for people reviews before deciding anything ;)
Yes. I told in text that it is not the first project for "games in cloud" but this company is the biggest one that has ever dealt with it :)
DeleteIt's pretty hard to judge how it's gonna be received in gaming community. At first it's still not officialy in use, we're not sure how does real performance look like and how countries with slower network will work. Another important thing which wasn't mentioned in this article is that google won't start this service in a lot of countries (in Poland too) and this is the place for smaller companies and competition, also big hardware companies won't probably make this easier to happen. In my opinion it's really dependent on it's start. It can be success but also a big failure especially when a lot of small and independent games are getting more and more popular and probably google won't support them. As I'm not a gaming person I wouldn't buy such subscription but I think a lot of gamers with slower computers would love to try and keep to this idea.
ReplyDeleteCloud computing is one of the most rapidly growing branches of IT industry. This trend is remaining relatively stable for several years. Personally I think that the advent of this kind of platform was only a question of time. The fact that one of the biggest IT giants is working on this product dramatically increases chance of success of this project. Many cloud solutions are widely accepted nowadays so personally I see no reason for this platform not to be used by people. Just take a look at Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and similar services. They do attract immense number of users and it does not seem to change. Actually I do not play computer games since I am, let’s say, nineteen so I probably won’t pay a subscription fee.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion google stadia can be the future of gaming. Not long ago we used to buy games on cd's right now a common thing is to download them so why not let cloud do the job ? Go for it Google! I think people will accept Gooogle Glass if expirience will be good enough to satisfie players. Chances for this platform success are growing up becouse people tend to foolow trends and option for playing games with favorite streamer might be for someone like dream come true. Personally I'm not sure depends on lot of things: cost, availability of products. Right now when I have some free time I prefer to watch some cartoon rather then playing games.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Google Stadia is the future but I'm pretty sure that sooner or later someone will make streaming gaming a real thing for commercial use. Google have all the resources to do it.
ReplyDeleteNivida is trying to do simmilar thing, right? But a heard that google wants to gather a lot of data from people using Stadia like voice from microphone,picture from camera etc.
I would not use it just because of that but most of the people don't even realize what is happening with their data so they will probably use it.
I wonder how fast internet connection do you need to use Stadia?
I would not buy a subscription for a simple reason - I don't really play computer games.
My colleague had a similar company, unfortunately, such a project costs a lot, so the company was not successful. However, I think that such a solution may have a future. Only I wonder what about the controllers. When playing, we need a keyboard, mouse or pad. It turns out that the end user will have to buy additional equipment anyway, of course, it will come out much cheaper. Google can afford such a venture because it has an income. Google Glass was not a success because other people felt they were being watched by the built-in camera. I think that such a comparison is unjustified, because it is a completely different field. I think that if the price of the subscription would be acceptable for me, I would decide to buy it.
ReplyDeleteIt may be the future but I doubt it will revolutionize anything. Even if Google infrastructure is ready, people's infrastructure is not. It's still quite troublesome to keep stable latency in online games and it's only a fraction of what game streaming needs.
ReplyDeleteActually I'm not sure if it's going to be popular. A lot of people (me included) usually play offline games when in travel or have unstable internet connection. I remember the times when people were angry when internet connection was required in some games to play offline.
It depends on the price and the quality of service. I think I'll at least try it to see if I was mistaken.
It certainly is a very bright and prospective project. Nevertheless, it might not be that easy to persuade games and gaming industries around the world to this idea. The internet connection is not yet that stable around the world to keep the game playable at any time.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that this project will meet with an approval from people. I've been thinking about something like that once and in Google's hands it has the power, infrastructure, idea and money to make the dream come true. I have never heard about Google Glass project though.
I will definietly buy a subscription for this product once it is available in our country. I am looking forward to see which games will they offer at the beginning.
1. I think this is an interesting solution for players but I don't play games so this topic is strange for me.
ReplyDelete2. It's hard to answer this question.
3. Unfortunately I will not buy this. As I mentioned, I don't play games.
Is Google Stadia the future of games? It's hard to say. Nowadays consoles reign in this industry, but how was it more than a decade ago? There were no consoles yet and people played mainly on computers. So in the next decade it may be the same and services like Google Stadia will take control of the game market. Google Stadia with the current infrastructure of the Internet network (at least the one in Poland) may have a problem with acceptance of people because of the so-called "lags" when playing games. In a few years' time, when the speeds in the network will be much higher, people will use such solutions more often. Especially that there will be no need to have so many additional devices:) Subscriptions will buy, but only to check how the service works. Prolonged use is hardly an option. Currently there is no time to play games and probably for many years it will not change.
ReplyDeleteI can see quite a few positive sides of this kind of cloud computed gaming, but of course there is always a BUT :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a gamer for for last 28 years and I think I saw most of the gaming evolution process so far. For me Stadia could definitely solve on of the most irritating issue I can think of ... that is cheating and exploiting, also will definitely improve visual aspects of games. However I believe it can be use solely for casual gaming. Competitive gaming is relaying a lot on net code speed, so event with great internet capabilities it still wont send and receive data fast enough.
Its also hard to say if this project will survive, but google had so many ideas so far and many of them have failed, but still this corporation has so much money it wont heart them :)
Also I will definitely try this service out, but as mentioned before if I play games its rather competitive type, so this might not be my cup of tea.
Is Google Stadia the future? Maybe. However currently we still have troubles with playing normal online games due to latency and ping. In USA if you live on West Coast your ping will be probably high. How will Google solve this issue? What about people who use 3G/4G/LTE? Moreover it require us to be constantly connected to fast internet in order to play the game. With movies there is a data buffer but with games everything happens in real time. Google have a long history of discontinued projects (almost 50) so it is hard to say if people will accept Google Stadia.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Stadia is something great from my perpective and definitely it is a future. Now hardware development speed is decreasing and having ability to use cloud is definitely worth to do it - just better utilization of resources. You buy your gear, but do not play games all the time - in a datacenter it would be used all the time, what's good for the natural enivironment. I really think that this project is going to be successfull and when it's there, I am the first to try it out!
ReplyDeleteThe idea itself looks promising, but.... I share the opinions of other commentators that internet connectivity quality may be an issue. I live on the outskirts of Warsaw,
ReplyDeleteinternet network speed leaves a lot to be desired (I am using LTE network). Actually the network is pretty fast only late at a or early in the morning - I believe that many more players may be prevented from using Google Stadia for similar reasons. I think that this need of being connected to the internet while playing may be very annoying (some companies already force players to do so in order to prevent piracy - e.g. Ubisoft, even if someone plays in single-player mode). What I observed was, that hardware do not get old at very fast rate these days (as compared to the situation 10-15 years ago when my pretty decent PC became unusable very quickly - in about 1 year) - I assembled my last PC 4 years ago (just to play Witcher 3 at full details) and it is still working just fine for new games.
It might be the future, if it meets certain conditions. If Google Stadia will be as great as Google claims, it certainly has a big chance to become the future. The biggest threat I see is the need to have a high quality Internet connection. If it will be so, Google Stadia can be the future only for the chosen ones (mostly for people living in big cities).
ReplyDeleteIf Google Stadia will work properly, without significant lag and if it will be affordable, people are gonna love it.
I currently have a console, but when the next generation comes out, maybe I will have to make a choice. The price will be the most important factor. Moreover, even if Stadia would be cheap, but I will have to pay for the time I spend playing, I'm afraid it will spoil the whole fun.
1. Is Google Stadia the future?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big player so it's hard to say but one of my best friend told me once that game's market is becoming smaller year by year and people are less in need for new titles. From a person that is only slightly interested in games I find out (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is only a few titles that brings (a lot of) people attention which basically means sponsors, twitch streaming thing - more or less money. So I think that easier access for this particular titles might brings huge profits but I don't think that Google got rights for any of this titles.
2. Do you think that the project will be accepted by people, or will it end like the abandoned Google Glass?
According to the though from part 1- it all depends of the titles and quality that Google will provide. If it will be really easy reachable- why not? If you can transform your TV to a console for your kids it might be quite interesting!
3. When the project becomes available to everyone, will you buy a subscription?
To be honest I've got just a few titles that I used to play for time to time so I guess no. Of course there is a possibility that I might buy a subscription when for e.x. they'll provide some nice multiplayer games that will be cool to play with friends during meetups or they'll present something that we've never seen before. I hope we'll find out soon!
Google Stadia can be a successful project because in my opinion it will be fast way to open up a game like Netflix or Spotify does. A cheap subscription may reduce piracy and help game developers to grow up. But in the other hand I believe that Google’s statements are way too optimistic. The method Stadia is using is heavily depended on internet connection. Because a streamed game shouldn’t have any latency. Games are about quick actions and reflex skills so it could be that deciding thing for Google Stadia to be accepted by gamers. If a subscription was cheap I’d consider buying it. But in my opinion it’s going to be expensive because Stadia is way harder task than Netflix or Spotify had.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely yes Google Stadia might be the future of gamin. Also, I guess that major services would be available via subscriptions in the future. Moreover, it will provide possibility to launch each program, video game or anything we want in real time, from remote, scalable, virtual machine. It would be a huge innovation. Generally, usage will depend on the pricing :) Also I'm not sure how it would work for online gaming, due to latency.
ReplyDeleteWill buy the subscription and test, to compare offline single mode gaming to online playing with friends.
I have already tried one of those stream services, can't remember it's name, but it was quite expensive. It also required a strong internet connection which is not about my internet, because I live in a student dormitory. Maybe in future services like Google Stadia will become less demanding. Then I think it could become popular. But for know playing computer games the traditional way is the best option in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI love idea of this project. I definitely would buy it and use it if it would be on the market! I think it can be the future but not so near future. Computers already requires lots of computing power to create high resolution graphics of games. Streaming it from remote server is next level of difficulty. You don't only have to take care about computing power but also take care about high resolution streaming to your device. And ALL of that needs to happen in glimpse of the eye. I think that this technology needs to be as good as normal gaming so people would not see any difference. Then I think it has future.
ReplyDelete1. Is Google Stadia the future?
ReplyDeleteIt's a very interesting concept, because it allows you to play some hardware-greedy games without lags or frames drop. So I think yes, it is the future, and it will allow a wider group of gamers to compete against each other online.
2. Do you think that the project will be accepted by people, or will it end like the abandoned Google Glass?
I think it will be accepted, but future will show how it will be. Still, it's a very good idea to allow playing games with some subscription payment model, without hardware limits.
3. When the project becomes available to everyone, will you buy a subscription?
Yes, I will, I love gaming and I will surely try this.
1. Is Google Stadia the future?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion - yes. From perspective of game developers it's a great tool and platform to distribute content. First of all, everybody with internet connection fast enough can play the game within seconds - compared to downloading games for minutes or even hours nowadays. Also, currently games are developed on many platforms - developers need to make versions for game consoles, for PC, sometimes they make version for mobile phones, etc. With platform like Stadia they need to make just one version - and then everybody can stream the game on their phones, macbooks or consoles.
2. Do you think that the project will be accepted by people, or will it end like the abandoned Google Glass?
It has a great chance to be accepted by people, because good internet connection is the only thing that is necessary. No need to buy new, expensive console or PC parts, no need to download big files, no need to worry about anything besides paying subscription. Ease of use will lure people to Stadia.
3. When the project becomes available to everyone, will you buy a subscription?
I will buy a subscription for one month to check how it works. I am not really in the gaming market anymore :)
I've still didn't hear about it. Is it alive? or just canceled like Google glass that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteIt's looking great, but Google should invest some money to announce that they are working on it. Platform looks nice, connect every game into one is a great idea, but it will be hard to convince PS users or Xbox players to change it to Google platform. Exclusive games will be still only on PlayStation and for me this is the best platform to play on.
I'm truly convinced that first month will be free and I will check it right after release :)