Topic: Google Stadia

Hardware price? Subscription price? Software price?

If Stadia is not targeting existing console owners but expects $$$ for hardware, subs and software, I'd like to know who they are targeting, because it's not just people that can't afford consoles but just happen to have fast broadband.

If you can afford fast broadband and Stadia, you can afford a console.

I was planning on buying a Chromecast Ultra around the time Stadia was announced. So for me there's not much risk involved. If it doesn't work for me I can sell on the controller and keep my new chromecast like I originally wanted. Any game that I buy that could one day eventually be taken away by Google, I wouldn't have had the chance to play it in the first place on my Switch more than likely.
I may end up switching back to Xbox at some point but I'm interested to give Stadia a go.

@Ralizah PS Now used to be streaming-only. In the past year or so they started offering the option of download-playing PS4 & PS2 games (Streaming still mandatory for PS3 since the hardware can't run it.)

Even Sony eventually figured out streaming is pretty limited in viable market...

@Galenmereth But that was just a publisher licensing dispute.....honest!

Well, whoever Stadia is aimed at, is rather irrelevant, if they can't even make it work properly, much as I already expected, by the way: the worldwide web is so unevenly divided across continents and regions, that it's pretty hard to get a decent connection, even in some first world countries, depending on the region/state/province, so regardless of idealistic/theoretic ideas about where we SHOULD have been in 2020, internet-wise, we're still a LONG way off from that ideal picture.

This video review by The Washington Post's tech department was posted in the Chit-Chat thread by @Ralizah (thanks, by the way) but obviously, this dedicated thread is a far better place for it:

And there's more not all that positive video reviews to be found all over the internet, showing that Stadia is not only FAR from perfect, but also too expensive for what it offers in comparison to ACTUAL consoles:

But all in all, issues like the ones mentioned in the videos basically destroy any and all chances of having any kind of decent online multiplayer match in games that are offered by Google's new service.

And a personal pet peeve of mine, and probably many other gamers, is that Google apparently thinks that it's okay to charge just as much for allowing it's members to stream a game, vs people actually buying and owning a game, especially those that still buy physical games, not knowing whether or not the games they paid for will even be accessible in a couple of years, provided that Stadia is ever going to achieve more than being a rather tepidly received and thin spread service in the first place...

My personal prediction is that Stadia is going to fail massively. Google will keep pushing it for a couple of years, but it'll never be as successful as they would want or might think, and somewhere in 2022/2023, it will die out, following the likes of OnLive, and similar online services.

And even if it does manage to stay alive, it will only ever be niche, and not a product for the dedicated, and more importantly: hardware brand loyal, gamer.

Oh, and those prices... (shakes head)

I like how people here say on one hand we don't need a switch pro because streaming is the future. Then at the same time blast Google stadia as much as possible

^^^ lol

Thankfully I don't have any data caps but for anyone that does, watch out!

https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/19/google-stadia-data-usage/a...

"Liked" by gamexplain which is a Nintendo fanboy YouTube channel

Tried it out tonight for the first time on the big screen. Runs great. In about half an hour of gameplay I got one split second stutter. Latency was not an issue. Could tell no difference compared to playing on console.
I'm loving the controller. Feels great.
Have no interest in either of the 2 included games so now I know it works its time to buy some games.

@blockfight glad it's working well for you!! Which grants have you tried thus far?

Played Samurai Showdown and NBA 2K20. Destiny was having server issues apparently (bungies fault, not Google) so couldn't test that out.
Don't have good enough internet for 4K so was running at 1080p on my 65 inch 4k TV. Looked great. My broadband rarely gets above 30mb so don't think 4k wil be an option for me.

@linq just because it's of no use to you doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. I live in a house with my wife who has no interest in games. If I have free time I play on the big screen. If she's there id prefer not to subject her to watching me play. So the ability to switch to laptop or phone it's a great alternative. That's why im such a big fan of Nintendo Switch.
There will come a time next year when games are coming out for the new systems that people will have to pay around €400 for the new console and a further €60 for the game. If I can pick it up for 60 on Stadia and no new console cost, why would I buy it on xbox or ps5? There's more then just one way of looking at this service.

No new console cost is not an accurate statement. It's just a monthly fee instead to not have a console. The cost of Stadia will exceed the cost of a one-time console purchase within the generational cycle (almost $500 even at the 4 year mark). Presumably, since games have to be purchased, one would want to keep the service as long as is possible and assuming a 6 year console cycle, it's $720 for Stadia VS the one time console price, which still exceeds the rumoured $500 price tag on PS5. Given the right sales, I could buy 2 different consoles for about the same cost just to access Stadia within that cycle.
Yes, the Stadia cost is much more entry friendly with only a monthly fee of $10, but the claim that there's 'no console cost' is ridiculous, since you end up paying more to not have a console and your games forever tied to that sub (Presumably, you lose access to all your purchased games if you cancel your sub, so you're essentially roped into paying for it forever to access them or at best cancelling and resubbing whenever you want to play the games you bought).

Stadia is free. Subscription not required if you don't want it. Which I don't. Only cost is games. Another misunderstanding of stadia. It's not Netflix for games. If I buy a game it's mine for keeps, subscription or no subscription.

Fair enough. I can definitely see the merit in picking up an xbox or ps4 right now as those consoles come to the end of their life cycles with a huge library of games for good value.
Google are figuring this out as they go it seems and they've gotten off to a rocky start. But it's another way to play, giving gamers more options as to how they want to play. And this can't be a bad thing in the long run. Hopefully over time the service gets better and better.
What annoys me is all the hate it's getting from people who have no interest in it in the first place or from people who think it's a Netflix for games that you have to subscribe to (see commenter above) but it's not that at all.

Since you mentioned consoles, I assumed you were comparing. Stadia free is inferior to even the current consoles (1080p max and only stereo sound). If you want to compare to the current consoles, let alone the upcoming generation, you'd need Stadia Pro.

In the case of the free service and if you don't care about the graphical and audio performance, yes Stadia is cheaper, but inferior and not comparable to next gen consoles in terms of performance. Likewise, the price shouldn't be compared, because if you want the same performance that even current gen consoles will do you have to pay more for it.
I never thought it was a Netflix for games, you were just comparing to consoles and so did I. You simply do not get the same thing consoles give without paying. Regardless of subscription, games are forever tied to the service is a valid point. It's free now, will it be in a years time? Will it still be available or go the way of Google+ and the many other things Google has dropped? Who knows.

That's fine. Just some people seem to think you lose your games if you aren't subscribed. Not true. I buy it, I keep it.
If im playing on laptop/ tablet/ phone im not too worried about 4k.
Console will always be superior. But this is a dam good alternative. More options for gamers is always a good thing.

I genuinely want to try Stadia at some point next year but honestly they pushed this thing out the door way too early

The Founder's/Premiere Edition owners are just glorified beta-testers until Google actually releases the platform with its intended features and a stronger game selection

The technology at the very least, is highly commendable. They did end up nearly perfecting what OnLive was attempting nearly a decade ago on nearly all levels but of course that varies from person to person

I stand by my original point on this, to slightly edit my first post in this thread:

For those who are interested, here's Digital Foundry's rather elaborate video review:

Published on Nov 21, 2019

Correction: The Pro streaming option consumes 20GB per hour, not per second!!

Our first look at Google Stadia concentrates on the 'Pro' subscription service and its 4K image quality, alongside the usual latency tests. Everything stacked up against Xbox One X - how does Stadia hold up? Note that while we've tried our best to preserve image quality on YouTube, Stadia footage is going through two tiers of compression here, so will look better in 'real life'.