Topic: Google Stadia

@Anti-Matter From what I've read Google refunded all purchases - not just the hardware - so not sure it could be labelled a scam. Folk spend their money, played the games then got their money back when they could no longer play the games.

I used XBox Cloud gaming a little when I had Game Pass and the performance was variable - certainly not something I'd pay for separately or buy full-priced games for, but quite useful for trying out a game without installing, or playing on a tablet if someone else was watching TV.

Loved stadia and will miss it. The refund allowed me to purchase a PS5 so that's a nice silver lining. There's a few of my friends now who I will likely never play with online again as they have no interest in buying an expensive console they'll barely use.

@blockfight That's awesome that they give a refund to you that my one problem with streaming services. I remember years ago I bought a few games from OnLive, and when they went shut down, I didn't get anything from them, of.course maybe that was due to Google owning Stadia so they were able to give refunds.

Maybe you should tell your friends about Gamepass that seems more up their alley and they don't need to own a console or PC to use it.

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.