Topic: Google Stadia

The problem with OnLive was that they never had the money to do refunds and Sony only wanted to buy their tech, not keep them as a going concern.

With Stadia out of the way, I'd think that the future of game streaming is between Microsoft, Sony and Nvidia and thankfully they're all just pushing it as an alternative to either games you already own and can play natively, or subscription services that give you access to a wide library of games.

The whole notion of buying games that you'll only ever own in cloud form was the objectionable part of Stadia for me, and I'm glad to see that further marginalized.

@Matt_Barber Right, due to Google owning Stadia they could afford to do refunds where as OnLive went bankrupt I believe. And yeah Sony just wanted it to use the technology for PS+. That and I believed they bought OnLives competitor at the time as well for the same reason.

@Tasuki I've told them about Gamepass but it's a non-runner. They likely only want to play very specific sports games (alot of which are on gamepass) but would rather just buy them cheap rather than having to be subscribed to play it. €15 per month sub versus picking the game up on sale for the same price once. And if they want to play on TV they need the console, so thats €300.
Stadia was great because it was so cheap. No monthly sub required to play multiplayer. Just buy the game you want and play with mates.

If you've got GamePass Ultimate you can play most games via streaming without needing a PC or a console; you just need a Smart TV with the Xbox App or, failing that, anything with a proper web browser. It's not as good an experience as playing the games natively, but it should be at least on a par with what you had with Stadia.

It's also possible to bring the price down a lot by converting Xbox Live subscriptions and/or farming Microsoft Points. Read here if interested:

https://cheapgamepass.com/

Other than than that though, I'd agree that it's the sort of thing that appeals to people who like to play a lot of different games rather than just the same few over and over. The break even point might only be 2-3 full priced games a year, but it's a heck of a lot more dives into the bargain bin and Steam sales.