@ThanosReXXX Good points very well made. I definitely don't plan to use it for many games initially. I was curious more than anything and was in the market for a chromecast also.
Im a big fan of games consoles and have owned at least one in every generation since Playstation 1. I am in no way abandoning consoles. I see the current and potential flaws of stadia. But I do think it will find its market as time passes and the service improves and becomes more fleshed out. Time will tell.
@blockfight Much like Digital Foundry, I'd be curious to find out the actual, live results, when they've finally got many thousands or more players online at the same time, because as shown with Red Dead Redemption in the Digital Foundry video, even with a good quality fiber connection in the house, you can't have other people doing other stuff online at the same time, or games start to stutter, so seeing as this was only a kind of preliminary test, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for more Digital Foundry test videos later in Google Stadia's life cycle.
But yeah, even though I'm sticking to my own prediction for now, I do agree that only time will tell.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Basically, the prices are the same as for brand new physical games on consoles, and some come in more expensive, limited edition packages. All in all, rather expensive, for a streaming only service, on which you'll never own any of the games, so what you'll be doing is paying full retail price for the privilege to be able to play them remotely.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Basically, the prices are the same as for brand new physical games on consoles, and some come in more expensive, limited edition packages. All in all, rather expensive, for a streaming only service, on which you'll never own any of the games, so what you'll be doing is paying full retail price for the privilege to be able to play them remotely.
@ThanosReXXX but when I pay for them and download them to a stadia there mine to keep yes/no
@Ninfan Nope, that's the whole point of Google Stadia: it's not a box or a device, it's a streaming only service, so you never download anything, you play games that are running on Google's servers, so that's why a lot of people think it's so expensive, because you're paying full price for games that you'll never own.
And when the service will either end or fail, then everything you've collected over the years, will be gone forever, so you can never go back to some older games that you'd like to replay, like you are now able to do on the consoles and handhelds that you currently own.
@Ninfan they are yours to keep as long as Stadia remains in business basically. You don't need the subscription to play any games. Games need to be purchased and can be played as long and as often as you like.
The fact that it could just cut off and you'll lose everything you paid for, must be causing a lot of hesitation for people.
If you're gonna go with that business model, you really need to put a lot more energy into making sure it succeeds than Google did, otherwise you've got a negative incentive that's going to accumulate.
@Ninfan they are yours to keep as long as Stadia remains in business basically. You don't need the subscription to play any games. Games need to be purchased and can be played as long and as often as you like.
@blockfight they really should make sure you keep the game when you buy it ( like when you buy something in nintendo e shop , when you buy it you keep it ) or stadia will never never work
@Ninfan No offense, but you still seem to miss the whole point about Google Stadia offering you nothing to save your games on. It's all remote access only, so you'll never own ANYTHING. You're only granted access to the servers that the games are stored on, for as long as Google sees fit to support them, so once they decide that they don't want to do that anymore (for whatever reason), then you're basically screwed, far as "your" Google Stadia game collection will be concerned...
@ThanosReXXX
I just wonder why does this product exist if you can't even own your games ?
Is Stadia created for peoples who will get bored after finishing one game and have no desire to keep the games after finishing the storyline?
@Anti-Matter Well, not everyone is a collector, or likes to replay games that they've already finished, and then there's the people that don't care about owning a box that costs several hundreds of dollars, simply because it says Nintendo, Xbox or Sony on the front, so not everyone cares about, or wants a console in their home.
For those people, this could work, but it would have to be a hell of a lot cheaper than it is now. And more stable...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@Anti-Matter Well, considering that digital purchases exceed physical purchases, it would seem many, many people don't care about ownership, however mostly I think most (younger) people haven't really thought through the implications of "the cloud" because the inexperience of youth tells them that everything they know has always been there and therefore will always be there. They've yet to experience a major shakeup "in the cloud" on the equivalent of a "going out of business sale" in the physical world, and they don't realize it can happen.
Digital distro on PC, XBox, PC, Switch is a little different because you technically DO own the game license, and you technically DO store it locally. If you're responsible for backing up your download, and preserving your hardware you do own it for life, locally.
But Stadia's a little different. You have to buy the license for the game, but you do not get to retain it or run it locally. AND you have to pay to access the servers (there's a free access version coming that doesn't do 4k etc and may or may not be spammed by ads.)
Honestly it's just a poorly thought out service from beginning to end. Not surprising from Google though. It offers poor value at a high price and no ownership of what you pay for.
By contrast, PS Now, XCloud, nVidia GeForce Now, etc are a better value. You still own nothing, but you didn't pay for the games, just the server access. So they wear on their sleeve that they're a rental service, and for many that's a justifiable service (like going to the video store and renting games back in the day, only cheaper and more games to rent.)
Stadia runs like a rental service but charges like a digital storefront.
@Ninfan I do own it. Im not sure you're totally understanding how it works though. You don't download any game at any point. You purchase the game and can instantly play it by streaming. No installation required. No download required. And no updates ever needed. You'll always be running the most up to date version of the game.
Once you buy the game it's yours to keep. But the argument others are making (which is valid) is that if Stadia shuts down tomorrow, you'll have no access to any of your purchased games anymore.
@blockfight No offense, but what you just described, is definitely not "owning" a product. By its own definition, owning something means having it in your possession, locally and tangibly, and having control over what you can do with it, neither of which is true in this case.
So, "yours to keep" also definitely isn't true, because it's Google that's keeping it FOR you, and who's deciding what you can or cannot do with it. That's leasing or renting. Nothing more, nothing less. You buy access rights, that's all. It's a rental house, not a bought one, and that's more than likely also what makes most people that are not impressed by it, or who are even against it entirely, feel like it isn't a worthwhile addition to the video game market.
If they'd offer the service at prices comparable to Xbox's GamePass or PlayStation's PS Now, then they might be able to grab a decent market share, but trying to offer a lesser service than those two, and having to buy (temporary) access to games for full retail price (while you can get GamePass or PS Now for a couple of bucks a month and with a far, FAR superior software library) simply isn't going to work for the majority of the existing gamer crowd.
Someone needs to sue Google for false advertising, even if it's just to give developers "freedom of how to achieve the best image quality and frame rate on Stadia," they shouldn't have been lying so close to launch about 60fps/4k.
@ThanosReXXX That's a fair enough arguement. It's clear you're not a fan of the system. I have my reservations too, owning games being the biggest one.
There's a lot of confusion out there too as to how this system works. Bad strategy on Google's part for that.
If you are an avid collector of games or a hoarder then this system won't be for you. But I can't remember the last time I fired up my xbox 360 to play a game I bought 7 years ago. Or my original xbox. Or my PS1. I buy a game. I play it. Im done. If I lose access to it years later when ive since forgotten about it I won't lose much sleep.
@blockfight I figured as much, and fair enough for the people that feel the same way, but besides my personal sentiments, it is exactly as many others have also said: it almost seems like Google hasn't thought this through at all, and are just eyeballing it from an almost Utopian perspective, only adding the most minor of disclaimers, such as in the Tweet posted right above your comment, which states " (with appropriate TV and bandwidth)", but then immediately afterwards, they all but nullify that statement again, or dare I say even downright belie it, by still insisting that they can and will deliver 4K streaming regardless, which is simply a lie.
So it actually isn't so much that I'm not a fan of the system, or rather: service, I just don't feel that it has something to offer for true gamers, who for all intent and purposes should already own one or several consoles, and will probably be rather faithful to and satisfied with the brands they've chosen up til now.
On a side note: I obviously can't speak for others, but I'm not a collector or hoarder per se, I just want to have control over the things I buy and in the case of games, I want to have full control over the games and hardware that I like/love (or as much as possible), and that would be able to play whenever I want, regardless of the fact if I ever actually will.
I just want to be safe in the knowledge that if I would want to play them, that the consoles and the games are there, virtually for as long as I'll live. And currently, that's the case for ALL my consoles and handhelds, and I've got quite a few of them. There are also a couple of games that I keep going back to, every now and then, either out of youthful sentiment, or simply because they remain entertaining/good games to play in short bouts every now and then, regardless of their age.
But yeah, like I said in my initial comment in this thread, a couple of pages back, this service that Google is offering, could have a place in the market, even if it's possibly only a niche one, if they make good on ALL their promises and statements, and do something about those ridiculous prices, because no matter which way we look at it, in today's market, or in any market for that matter, people will ALWAYS compare new things to similar things that are already there, so in this case Xbox's GamePass and PlayStation's PS Now, and if Google isn't even on par with these while STILL charging full retail prices for games, then they haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding to grab a piece of the video gaming pie, regardless of whether or not they'll find some supporters.
When Google announced Stadia, some media suggested that you could game on the go on your I pad. A possible challenge to Nintendo- well provided you had tonnes of data that is.
Having now spent time with Stadia I can confirm that the big N can sleep easily!
It is a decent concept and no doubt it will be tried by others but frankly it’s a disastrous launch.
The launch games are dull. Almost embarrassingly old. This is a launch line up!
You couldn’t play Stadia on the go- not a chance.
But at home... firstly I decided to try it the good old fashioned way- wired!
It works. It’s okay. The graphics are nothing to shout about but it works okay.
I wasn’t mesmerised but there was hope.
Then I moved onto wireless connection. Oh dear me. I get a consistent 50 meg download speed so I thought it would probably run quite well.
Stadia started up nicely. But then it got to the gaming. There is more lag than you get in a prison cell! The graphics are jarred and it makes Witcher on Switch look like the smoothest graphics you have ever seen!
Stadia was always going to be a gamble especially in the UK where wireless still isn’t up to scratch but there is just so much wrong with it.
The launch and hype was pretty much non existent and the gaming experience is just not good enough.
Google are pushing it with the tag line ‘grew console gaming that takes up no space.’
It somehow has still managed to end up being a waste of space.
Switch is still number one!
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