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STORM COMIN'! YOU MIGHT AS WELL SHUT UP ABOUT GOOGLE STADIA AND JUST ACCEPT IT

21/3/2019

70 Comments

 
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Phil "Jazz Hands" Harrison
Because there's nothing like doubling down on a conviction in the face of idiotic opposition... here we go again, kids!

Yesterday, I got a lot of angry people telling me how wrong I was about Google's Stadia. Some were quite frightfully rude, and - tellingly - most of the ones who were arsey with me on Twitter didn't even follow me on there. 

The thing is... it's water off a duck's back. I've been here before. You're not going to convince me otherwise of this, however aggressively you disagree with me, because the coming advent of cloud-based gaming, and the death of traditional consoles, isn't something I think is going to happen. It's something I know is already happening.

I started writing about games just as home computing was being superseded by 16-bit consoles. When Digitiser launched, we chose not to cover the Amiga because... well... what was the point? It was clearly going to be dead within a year or two. As legend records, Amiga owners were furious. They tried to get us fired, they started petitions... they flooded us with calls and letters.

None of it made a blind bit of difference to the Amiga market's inevitable and hilarious demise a year or so later.
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LADLE
Similarly, we could see the signs again when Sega started sliding from dominance, and CD-ROM was poised to replace cartridges. Sony was doing everything right, Sega and 3DO and the CD-i were doing everything wrong, and the momentum was very clearly heading in one direction. That didn't stop Sega fans snarling at anybody who told them differently.

And here we are, 26 years on from the launch of Digitiser, and our war with the Amiga fanbase, and the same thing is happening again. It's just history repeating, and nothing anybody says is going to convince me otherwise. Not least because most of the arguments against the utter unavoidability of cloud-based gaming and Google Stadia hold about as much water as a tramp's bladder. 

​To the point, in fact, where I just started ignoring messages on Twitter - something I try to avoid doing as much as possible, being, as I am, the world's most courteous man - because arguing about it became like trying to argue with a bunch of cultists who were furious that the Queen was gravid.

Change, as scary as it can be, is the only real constant.

It's like when you know it's going to rain, right before it does. The wind picks up, curling the leaves. The air shifts, the light changes... you can just sense it.

And that's where we're at today. Yeah, I might be the old man on his porch sniffing at the sky, and declaring "Storm comin'", but these seismic shifts don't happen often in gaming - they come around once every decade or so, at most, and we're right on the cusp of one. 


You can shout at the wind, and throw rocks at the clouds, and shove your fingers in your ears and go "La la la!",  but Google's Stadia, and cloud-based gaming, is the future.
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RISING TIDE
Polygon has a nice little interview with Google's Stadia boss Phil "The Pill" Harrison in which he addresses all the foam-flecked cognitive dissonance I was confronted with yesterday.

Google seem quite aware - as you'd expect them to be - that the internet isn't entirely set up yet to offer cloud-based gaming for everyone. They know it's going to be a gradual spread outwards, and a long-term project, but one quote from Harrison gets to the core of what I've been saying about Stadia: "There is a rising tide that lifts all boats."

Google knows that cloud-based gaming isn't going to replace consoles overnight, but Google is big enough - its plans for Stadia are ambitious enough - that they're going to drag the rest of the world with them. This won't be some sudden, abrupt shift - Google has a multi-year gameplan - and because of the sheer, omnipresent size of Google, it isn't a case of Google trying to fit into the market; the market is going to have to adapt to Google.  

The company has an unprecedented level of reach and resources that are almost infinite. Forget previous follies, like the Google Glasses; cloud-based gaming is occurring now. This is the way that gaming has, quietly, been going for a while, and now that Google is on board it's going to go into hyperdrive.

Google is not OnLive, or one of those other small-potatoes companies which tried to do too much to soon. Insisting otherwise is like playing, I dunno, Make My Video With Kriss Kross on the Mega CD, and failing to see the obvious potential of CD-ROM as a format. 

Night Trap, 7th Guest, Myst... did their awfulness stop CD-ROM, and then DVD-ROM, completely changing the way we play games?

And if you needed further evidence to ignore - which some of you will do, because you're wilfully stupid and ignorant and terrified - Google isn't the only major player in this game.
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SPENCE'
In the wake of Google's Game Designers Conference keynote, a memo to employees, from Microsoft's Phil Spencer, was leaked to Thurrott. It read: 

“We just wrapped up watching the Google announcement of Stadia as team here at GDC. Their announcement is validation of the path we embarked on two years ago.

"Today we saw a big tech competitor enter the gaming market, and frame the necessary ingredients for success as Content, Community and Cloud. There were no big surprises in their announcement although I was impressed by their leveraging of YouTube, the use of Google Assistant and the new WiFi controller.

"But I want get back to us, there has been really good work to get us to the position where we are poised to compete for 2 billion gamers across the planet. Google went big today and we have a couple of months until E3 when we will go big.

"We have to stay agile and continue to build with our customer at the center. We have the content, community, cloud team and strategy, and as I’ve been saying for a while, it’s all about execution. This is even more true today. Energizing times."


In short, don't necessarily expect another Xbox. Microsoft has been working on its Project xCloud for two years already - and is planning to unveil it at this year's E3.

If you want even to further confirmation that Microsoft certainly isn't putting all of its spawn into the Xbox trough, the company has also announced a partnership with Nintendo to start bringing certain Microsoft Live titles to the Switch, starting with Cuphead next month.

​Consider their bets hedged.
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STORM COMIN'
Cloud-based gaming is inevitable. Sure, be angry, be scared, be in denial, shoot the messengers. But denying that it's on the way isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to its utter inexorable ascendancy. 

I mean, tv, film, music... I was pretty sure, at one point, that I'd never abandon linear TV scheduling, and here I am now and I've not watched linear TV in years. I was certain that I'd always want to own physical copies of albums, yet I've not gone into a shop and bought an album for the best part of a decade. Yes, you can debate the pros and cons of all this, if you can be arsed, but it doesn't change the  reality we now live in.

Basically, physical media - and sorry to break this to you, collectors - is in its death throes, and video games are already way behind the curve in comparison to other entertainment industries. Oh, I'm sure you'll still be able to buy your collectors editions (just look how vinyl has had made a comeback), but for most of us - for the vast majority - owning a product, in the traditional sense, is already over.

Stop staring at your belly buttons and look at the bigger picture.

I mean, one of the more ridiculous arguments I faced yesterday is that people won't own their games outright in this new world, and what's to stop Google switching off their servers in ten years, and wiping their games? Aside from a very similar case to be made about the sheer number of games which now exist only as downloads, do you think all the people with Apple Music and Spotify accounts ever give this a second thought?

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? As I say, it's irrelevant, because it's going to happen regardless. And just as ISPs are going to have to adapt, just as Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo are going to have to adapt,... we're all going to have to adapt - same as we did when our Amigas became obsolete, when the SNES wasn't backwardly compatible with the NES, and when we all had to get rid of our CD drives and replace them with DVD drives.

The earth isn't flat, vaccinating your children won't make them autistic, global warming isn't a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese, and streaming is the future of gaming. It's just a fact. 

Whether you like it or not. 
70 Comments
Mr Amiga
21/3/2019 09:22:06 am

So you started writing in 2000 when the last Amiga magazine (AF) was published? Because that's when the Amiga essentially left the mainstream (although, yes, its popularity was waning over the previous few years) because as I remember it, Digitiser started in 1993, which was still in the heyday of that particular computer (I'd argue it was "popular" until around 1996/7).

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Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 09:46:01 am

Please be joking.

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Mr Amiga
21/3/2019 09:51:10 am

Ah someone gets it. Unlike the comment under yours. When someone invents a way of giving text a sarcastic tone, then this will all be so much easier.

Mr. Gibblets
23/3/2019 12:27:18 am

You could always go full forum mode and post /s after your comment. I myself prefer the selective use of italics, but this message board doesn't really lend itself well to that.

1020STFM
21/3/2019 09:49:44 am

Let it go man.

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Mr Amiga
21/3/2019 09:51:48 am

If I let it go, it will drop off! At least that's what I've been told.

Cunzy1 1 link
21/3/2019 09:24:17 am

Hmmm, I'm inclined to agree but I do think that games journalism/media needs to be more aware of how complicit they can be in adding to or taking away momentum with stuff like this which tends to create an industry 'buzz' when most game players couldn't give a toss.

Digitiser is probably small enough to not have too much of a push or pull on the pendulum but this kind of blind hype based on a perceived trend has been damaging to gaming examples including the waste of time VR experiment (x2), the mobile phone gaming fad and even taking responsibility for protecting gamers online (remember the torrent of disapproval for Friend Codes despite widespread online harassment and bullying and well, we all know where that ended).

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Nick
21/3/2019 09:40:37 am

Well. That was friendly. Erm…. Yeah. I guess you’re right.

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The Moleman
21/3/2019 09:42:16 am

It's an interesting read Mr Biffo, certainly the theoretical tech side is there even if the internet infrastructure isn't. One glaring issue though is that gamers are more tech and industry savvy now more than ever, they know the downward sprial of orwellian drm this always leads to.

On the surface certain things just make sense, remember Steam Machines, motion controls or when VR was poised to take over living rooms? When you get down to the nitty gritty of the customer bases we're a savvy bunch with a well earned extreme distrust of tech companies.

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Mr Bass
21/3/2019 09:43:32 am

Ok, your point is all very good and all that - there is probably a certain inevitability to subscription based streamed gaming happening (and then fading out as all these technologies do - remember cartridges?)

However...

I have to ask why you have chosen to write this article? Or more to the point why you appear to be littering perfectly good content with stabs at those who opined differently to yourself? From the general tone of the text, it comes across in - dare I say it - an aggressive and flippant way. Im sure you're not trying to sound like you dontgiveashit about the views/feelings of your readers, but you're edging slightly too close to being argumentative for the sake of point scoring with the way you've written this. That's the kind of shit I see on Facebook - well I would if I ever really used that cesspool of inhumanity. You're saying "Nothing you can say will change my mind" - well that's fine but the point is *you don't need to tell us that* because we know that simply if you keep writing about the subject in a positive way that will be making your point in a far less confrontational way.

Which is all a shame, because up until this article I was enjoying your site, and the youtube channels immensely. I just feel you may have slightly overstepped a mark this time.

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Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 10:22:23 am

Aggressive and flippant? You've not been reading Digi very long have you, love?

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Mr Bass
21/3/2019 10:31:10 am

Since 1993, darling

Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 10:39:00 am

We've always been aggressive and flippant!

Mr Bass
21/3/2019 10:48:44 am

Well...yes, but not in a way that seems like you're taking something personally...Normally its aggressive and flippant for effect and it usually makes me grin. This article just comes across as unfriendly. I think others may have alluded to that too...

Truth be told, I'm with you on this - I'm actually excited about the advent of streaming gaming and I was the guy who used to love collecting the physical boxes for games all the way from the VIC-20 up to my PS4 and PC today. I'm not such a sensitive soul that I can't handle a bit of verbal bitch slapping, but I just thought it wasn't necessary is all, Mr B.

Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 10:50:10 am

Nah, we used to take things personally all the time back in the day.

Spiney O’Sullivan
21/3/2019 11:04:55 am

I think we both know the internet well enough to grasp that this article probably wasn’t written in response to a couple of polite, meek, non-confrontational messages...

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Nick
21/3/2019 11:08:57 am

I suppose that’s right. It still felt a bit off to me. Oh-hum.

Mr Bass
21/3/2019 11:14:31 am

I guess I must be getting too soft in my old age, but why listen to people on twitter? They're all keyboard warriors venting spleen or whatever it is they do. Mr Biffo should feel confident that those idiots who argue for the sake of arguing are in a significant minority. He's obviously much more in tune with reality than they are - which is why I thought it was sad he felt he needed to justify his views (which, for further clarity, I completely agree with) and sound vaguely angry doing so.

Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 06:24:51 pm

Uhhh... so here's the thing... I'm not really that bothered either way, and if you're getting worked up about this article... well, it's not meant to be taken entirely seriously, and you need to take a step back. Digitiser has always had a streak of taking the piss out of people - not least when people are completely overreacting about something - and that's all this is meant to be.

Do I stand by my feelings about the Stadia, and that people are wrong? Yeah. But... I'm not really that fussed.

Andy Thomas
21/3/2019 09:48:18 am

It will be really interesting to see how it all pans out - I can see Nintendo, for example, sticking with the traditional hardware route for a bit yet, especially with how well the Switch appears to be doing.

In fact, with the modular nature of the Switch, I could even see them just sticking with it long-term & releasing upgrades for it to bolt on. There’s probably potential to stream to it, in fact.

Then again, Nintendo always have been pig-headedly different to the mainstream.

Essentially, Google are doing what Steam did for massive cardboard boxes & manuals for 90’s PC games - they won’t go away just yet, but there’ll be a definite shift towards the non-physical side of things. If the potential issues with their system can be kept minimal, it can only improve the already sweet spot we’re in for gaming accessibility.

Finally, I’m actually enjoying a couple of re-releases/remakes on the Switch (Constructor Plus, Night Trap, Sonia Mania) so would say that any technological changes that make gaming easier to pick up have got to be a good thing, right?

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Andy Thomas
21/3/2019 09:53:50 am

*Sonic Mania. Sonia Mania would be a great name for a prog-rock band though... or the name of a female character in some Street Fighter knock-off.

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Col. Asdasd
21/3/2019 10:07:53 am

Nintendo are interesting, because the going by the 'undeniable industry trends innit' argument they should already have been blasted into obsolescence by the smart phone. And yet they've made successful handhelds right the way through the existential crisis that should have swallowed their market whole.

Which does make me rather curious about how this streaming venture will pan out. I don't buy the argument that the market is waiting for a ubiquitous technology to come along and make gaming available to everyone, because in a form, that already exists: everyone has a smart phone, and everyone has a web browser.

Casual gaming enjoyed an explosion outside of the core market via these things, but barely made an impact within its walls (except for the invidious arrival of the gacha capsule.) We've already had one revolution and it led to a lot of people playing Angry Birds but not a great deal of people going on to take up a controller in earnest.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens with cloud gaming, which is less an effort to push easy, accessible Candy Crushers onto Aunt Beryl during her lunch break and more an effort to get her to put down Netflix in the evening in favour of the latest Nathan Drake murderfest - with all the commensurate confusion about navigating 3D space, manipulating a camera and moving and shooting while keeping track of grenades on the HUD, which casual gamers find such a barrier to entry.

This technological impediment will be as big a challenge as breaching the cultural barrier in which the mainstream still regards gaming as the preserve of a loser underclass even as they check Clash of Clans for the dozenth time that day.

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Cunzy1 1 link
21/3/2019 10:23:09 am

I think quality is a big part of it. The gaming press and PC gamers give 'quality' from functionality through to consumer standards stuff a bit of a free pass but quality and reliability is more important to a wider consumer base I think. Some of their recent partnerships are interesting because Nintendo seem to bring (or insist on) the spit and polish side of things resulting in some great collaborative games.

Some of their games have huge player bases too which are all but overlooked because the pink haired Kidzzz aren't streaming them. It's why copies of Mario Kart 7 and 8 on the WiiU still sell preowned for near full price when stuff like the new Tomb Raider and last week's Shlooter are already 'bargain binning'.

Mario
21/3/2019 11:33:20 am

Mario Odyssey was one of the most blatantly unfinished games I've played this gen. I don't think you can underestimate the sycophancy and brand loyalty of Nintendo fans, it has far too much inertia to stop in recent days (though the WiiU nearly did it I guess)

Spiney O'Sullivan
21/3/2019 11:50:16 am

@Cunzy11: To be unusually fair to those pink-haired streaming Kidzzz, they've mainly not been streaming Nintendo games because Nintendo's policy towards Youtubers/Streamers has typically ranged from "overly restrictive" to "borderline hostile". Even now they've apparently lightened up and dropped their "creators" program for a looser set of guidelines, I'm not sure I'd want to risk getting a copyright claim from them if I were already making enough money from dying my hair and dabbing while playing Fortnite.

Cunzy1 1 link
21/3/2019 12:29:41 pm

@Mario Interesting, I've not played it just yet, don't remember seeing this in reviews? But it wasn't resetting consoles, missing title screens or just unplayable until X number of patches broken was it?

@Spiney O'Sullivan Quite right! I forgot how this was a thing until around Super Mario Maker came out?? Although they seemed to have some approved streamers before then. Would love to know the specifics of the change and how it was communicated.

Moonbucket
21/3/2019 09:48:21 am

Oh I like it when someone has the clout to give the angry mob a right verbal slapping, hitting then with facts and evidence.

That memo from Microsoft lands with the almost smug velocity of a meteor big enough to reach land, squashing the deniers as it scorches a new future.

Oddly l still cling to physical media solely for movies even though I'm aware this puts me sn the same oddball category at those rabid betamax collectors you'd see at boot sales...

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Boonmucket
21/3/2019 12:56:59 pm

"Giving the angry mob a right verbal slapping"...surely that makes him one of the angry mob then?

And the minute I take anything from Microshaft seriously is the day I give up. Think Zune. Think Windows Mobile. That memo has all the impact of a flaccid penis on one's forehead.

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Col. Asdasd
21/3/2019 09:49:07 am

Well. I'm certainly convinced that you're convinced.

Less convinced than ever that I want to spend a second of my life on twitter mind you. The anger that seems to have overspilled from there into this article made for a bit of an uncomfortable read.

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Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 10:09:13 am

Good.

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dave a
21/3/2019 09:55:07 am

The good news is whenever capitalism gets rude there will be a counterpunch. I can see this service having its paywalls breached. Its not reasonable to put everything behind a subscription paywall, and get rid of the second hand market in one swoop. The days of always paying full price for a game and for access to the online services too is not good. What is good is environmentally this leaves less of a production/distribution footprint. Google being google means you will be able to order a pizza in game lol

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Johnny Blanchard link
21/3/2019 10:44:17 am

I said yesterday I didn't entirely agree with you, so i'll explain exactly what I meant here. I agree fully that cloud gaming is the future, hive processing is becoming cheaper and cheaper, broadband is getting faster and cheaper and two of the major console manufacturers have started working towards their own initiatives.

Now I don't think Stadia will be answer, the infrastructure isn't quite there and the one thing you can guarantee with gamers is they'll jump on any slight fault and tear it to pieces. But I do agree that it's a catalyst, and a very necessary one.

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Nikki
21/3/2019 10:56:29 am

As soon as the UK's infrastructure is upgraded so it can handle someone playing a game and someone watching netflix at the same time, this would be great.

How long do we reckon for that? 3 years? 5 years? 10?

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Mr Jalco link
21/3/2019 11:09:14 am

I agree with this wholeheartedly. It's coming, and in many ways it will improve games immeasurably. Imagine having access to thousands or games, many you may never otherwise have played, from pretty much anywhere. This can only be a good thing.

HOWEVER. I'm very, very suspicious or Big Data firms (which, at the end fo the day, is what all the tect companies are these days). We've handed over so much of our privacy, data and information, and I don't think it's healthy. I just worry that in the rush for the new and cool, the implications of opening up yet another saleable data stream may not be realised.

But maybe I'm just an overly-suspicious old git.

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RG
21/3/2019 11:09:20 am

Rant aside, does a tramps bladder necessarily hold less water than anybody else's?

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Colin
21/3/2019 01:04:42 pm

Finally someone gets the real thrust of this article

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Biscuits
21/3/2019 11:22:52 am

Look dude, I hate ubiquity, and despise Googles two-step-verification face-recognition identity-molding. The massive company trying to become the only company is dark, dark indeed

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Mr Biffo
21/3/2019 06:26:27 pm

Never said it wasn't! Doesn't mean that's not the way things are going.

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Paul
21/3/2019 11:33:38 am

Hmm. Collectors, eh? Ok, so there are people out there who like their ihtusucal games. So do I. I’m one of them.

But - get this - libraries loan games. Ok, maybe a shady area, and there is usually a fee for that, but it makes games affordable in small bursts. Maybe Google’s pricing will help with that.

But - and this should concern people who see games as historical artefacts of our culture - how do we preserve them outside of the cloud and the developers’ infrastructure ?

Biffo: you worked in a medium that was updated daily, hourly even, and Digitiser, like all Teletext pages were lost to all after a few scant hours. I bet you were dead chuffed when your work started to be uncovered by those digging through VHS tales. I would be.

Like your Teletext days, cloud based stuff is transient. It will eventually be lost as servers are retired. Surely they should be preserved? Isn’t that a good reason to raise a wary eyebrow and question this?

This whole cloud stuff (music, videos, games) is liberating, but the permanence if it is worrying. Historians can still read the Domesdsy book - which is 900 years old. We not struggle to access the 1980s project because the technology is failing (yes, I know efforts are underway to recover the data).

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Pete Davison link
21/3/2019 01:30:18 pm

I agree with this. My concern over and distaste for Stadia primarily stems from this angle. Gaming is as important a medium as anything else, and it really bums me out when I consider that whole swathes of it -- mostly from the last couple of generations of console hardware -- are going to be lost at some point because no-one will have considered how we might preserve today's experiences until it's much too late.

And why does no-one seem to care? Because the masses seem desperately eager to break free of the constraints of "static" technology, of static storage media, of the massive amount of physical exertion it takes to get up off your sofa, get a disc off your shelf and put it in a slot, all in the name of convenience. Convenience is lovely, sure, but at some point you have to contemplate the cost of that convenience. And if the cost of that convenience is the potential total loss of what are -- to me, you may disagree, but that doesn't change how I feel -- important cultural artifacts, then I want no part of it.

The difference between what we're seeing here and what Biffo says about the Amiga is that a significant chunk of the Amiga library is still out there, archived online in numerous places and freely available for anyone either with working original hardware or a suitable emulator to enjoy. Alongside that, collectors and resellers still have physical copies in circulation. The Amiga may not be "relevant" any more, but it still exists.

If something gets the boot from Stadia's servers, however, it's gone. Perhaps forever. I cannot and will not support a future where that possibility is the unquestioned norm.

If streaming is the future of gaming, I will happily remain in the past.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
21/3/2019 02:34:18 pm

The drive to move to digital media is not just about convenience, though, I think it's also about practicality and changing lifestyles.

Unfortunately it seems that more and more people are getting stuck for much of their 20s and 30s in a cycle of renting and sharing accommodation due to -depending which newspaper you read- either a terribly undersupplied market for reasonably affordable housing that has made a lot of people give up on the idea of property ownership, or lazy millennials spending too much money on avocados on toast and Instagrammable holidays. For these people, having shelves of DVD cases and books is something that really isn't affordable for large chunks of their life. These things eat up a lot of living space and are just a hassle when moving, which can basically be an annual occurrence depending on where you live.

So it's not just about "the exertion of getting up and putting a disc in a machine", it also seems to me that it's at least partly about the rather more pressing issue of not having a permanent or reasonably-sized place to put either the machine or the growing collection of disc cases.

Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
21/3/2019 04:35:16 pm

Machinima’s entire YouTube account (all those wonderful GTA IV bloopers, and Battlefield Friends) disappearing overnight at the flip of a switch by their new parent entity fucking stung, man.

Pete Davison link
21/3/2019 04:49:46 pm

Re: Spiney

I'm not saying the digital/streaming option shouldn't be there for those who don't have the space for a physical collection. I just don't want to be punished for being someone who *does* have the space to still enjoy things in the way I always have done, and in the way that I still wish to. And this isn't "oh look, I have a big house, la-di-dah"; my wife and I live in a former council house that we were fortunate enough to get a decent mortgage deal on a few years back, and we make the best of what we've got.

One size doesn't fit all, and I honestly don't really care that some underpaid millennial I don't know is stuck in a tiny bedsit and doesn't have enough room to indulge in their hobbies physically. Live according to your means. When my house is full, I will either stop buying stuff or get rid of some things. In the meantime, I will continue to place value on the physical possessions of my hobby of 30+ years as well as the emotional experiences I've had with it.

I moved nearly every year from about 1999 (when I left home to go to university) until 2010 or so and a few more times since then, and have always had a substantial collection of games, DVDs, books and other possessions. I found a way to make it work (and have downsized several times over the years -- the DVD and CD collections have mostly gone, along with some of the books, because I valued the games more), and if I suddenly had to move out of my current place for one reason or another, I'd still find a way to make it work, even with my collection being much bigger than it was back then.

Again, let me reiterate: I'm not saying "the streaming future" shouldn't exist. I am saying that for some of us, it is undesirable, and that it is not the only option, nor should it be.

Spiney O'Sullivan
21/3/2019 08:23:25 pm

And I'm not saying that it isn't valid to still want physical media for posterity. I'd personally prefer to have a whole lot more of it if it were practical to do so. What I am saying is that I think that the idea of the rise of non-physical gaming as being about laziness instead of the changing needs of a fairly important demographic (which is also having an impact on a wide range of other industries) is needlessly dismissive.

Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
21/3/2019 12:38:52 pm

My big issue with all online-only services is that they remain a house of straw. All conditions have to be perfect or it doesn’t work well, if at all.

Weird pixels and drops in quality in Netflix are frustrating. Dying in some game because your Stadia thinger dropped some packets will make you glad the controllers are cheap because you just hoyed yours out the window. Likewise when you have a Battlefield-launch style server overload and can’t access Hot New Game VI.

I am sure many of your readers have workplaces (my own with SAP) where all work grinds to a halt if whatever eggs-in-singular-basket system you depend on goes down.

(It should be noted that said cloud-based work-anywhere system is markedly slower and gives a worse experience than an equivalent piece of proper software running right there on your computer)

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Orless
21/3/2019 12:45:25 pm

Well, OnLive worked well enough 7 or 8 years ago, and that was with a relatively meagre 40mbps and crappy latency thanks to the BT HiomeHub.

With FTTH giving >250mbps and <20ms for many now (yes, yes, I know not everybody, now or in the future) I can't see the technical challenge being too much to overcome for all but the twitchiest of Simons. There'll be nothing to stop them going out to buy a £1000 GPU and some pretty LEDs for their 'rig' for a long time yet.

No-one is mentioning this biggest benefit of remote rendering though, the fact that you don't need to have a bloody fan whirring away in your living room. Let Google's sheds burn the watts and make all the noise!

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Mr Bass
21/3/2019 12:51:23 pm

Just addressing the current worries surrounding bandwidth for the average Joe: I am a lucky SOB insofar as I currently have a 200MBps service through a ubiquitous fibre provider (clue: rhymes with "Mergin'") in the UK. However, even with this generous bandwidth there are several issues which I believe are common to most folk (at least here in the UK)
1. Though I may on occasion get anywhere from 196-200MBps actual bandwidth (and I am all too aware I'm one of the Lucky Ones with that) actually, contention tends to make that figure significantly lower - and contention for some ISPs is pretty shoddy as things stand.
2. I might be alone here, but my router currently supplies internet for the following devices: 2 x mobile phones (mine an 'er upstairs') 1 x iPad, 1 x PC, 1 x PS4, 2 x Sky Q boxes...you get the point. 200mb is quite easily split down pretty quickly once you've got these devices sucking it up. Granted, they won't all be using it at the same time on any given moment but enough of them will be sufficiently that by the time it's all figured out, I'd be surprised if I'd have much elbow room left bandwidth wise for a clear and consistent 25Mbps stream. I shudder to think that the average broadband speed for the UK is (at last count I think) less than 20Mbps and how that translates...

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Orless
21/3/2019 01:05:56 pm

I have considerably more devices than yaou (5 iPhones, 3 iPads, 4 PCs, 1 Server, PS4, Switch etc.) and even when on ~75mbps with BT VDSL and everyone in the house using the connection with high bandwidth activity (2 x 4K streams, 1 x 1080p stream, 1 x PS4 online being the worst case scenario) I never noticed any problems. I was quite surprised how well it all held up tbh.

The actual bandwidth needed will probably be less than 25mbps too, likely in line with Netflix's bitrates, so about 7mbps for 1080p, 16mbps for 4K.

Looking at my 'worst case' above it probably tops out at about 40-45mbps for the streaming/gaming, leaving plenty of headroom for the wifi devices doing updates, notifications etc. even with a relatively modest 50mbps. Remember, that's a heavy home use case, not many people will be able to lean on their connection as hard.

I reckon you'll be fine, Virgin's contention issues notwithstanding.

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Mr one up
22/3/2019 06:24:38 am

I have 20,000 iPhones, 163 iPads and 6 million sky boxes and I play angry birds simultaneously on all of them. Plus my dad is an astronaut

Mr One Up Upped
25/3/2019 09:02:21 am

Well I'm the Lord God, and I own EVERYTHING.

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Dav
21/3/2019 12:54:45 pm

Twitter: "If I don't like it, I'll deny it's happening."

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Mr Bass
21/3/2019 12:59:11 pm

In which case let's both deny Twitter is happening.

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Dan Whitehead
21/3/2019 01:02:24 pm

Microsoft was always a software company reluctantly dragged into the hardware market, so I'm not surprised they're chomping at the bit (lol like 8bit you see) to ditch physical consoles.

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MENTALIST
21/3/2019 02:00:52 pm

It's curious that you point out "Google isn't Onlive". That's certainly the case, but it's also true that Onlive operated their game streaming service for several years longer than Google have run some of their services or hardware programmes before losing interest and dropping them.

I don't doubt that streaming will be a significant part of the future of gaming. But there are quite a few risks associated with Google's effort that their competitors (in Sony and Microsoft, who have existing or announced game streaming plans) don't share. Google are having a whole ecosystem that exists only within streaming, as opposed to the plan offering streaming access to something that exists locally as consoles do now. It's too early to tell, but that might be important for a transitional period that could be many years long - the latency issue is a particularly tricky one to solve.

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Adam Villarreal
21/3/2019 02:58:42 pm

Dude, I just want to play video games. The amount of venom being spouted by both defenders and naysayers is offputting and makes me want to bury my head in the sand- not to avoid the oncoming of change but to avoid hearing everyone's shrill voices and think pieces over a thing that doesn't even have a date or price point.

Whether or not streaming is the future and whether or not it's Stadia that leads the way (which I doubt because it's run by Google, who never gets anything right the first try) means absolutely shit to me. If I like the service I'll use it and if I don't, I won't. There will always be a demand for the traditional way to buy games no matter what the mainstream way eventually shifts to. This literally has no effect on how you will play games if you don't want it to have an effect.

So to people saying this streaming thing is a fad and are militant about it's failure- shut up. You haven't used this service yet and don't know if its worse than AIDS. To people who are trumpeting this as game changers and saying< "I told you so"- shut up. You, also, haven't used this particular service and have no idea if it's the best thing since tummy rubs. Again, no one even knows how much the damn thing will cost.

Everyone, just find your favorite game to play and SHUT UP!

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EggyRoo
22/3/2019 08:52:08 am

Well put - I was trying to say something like this in my post below but went off on a tangent a bit...

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Fancy Pants
21/3/2019 06:13:06 pm

Again, there seems to be a wilful misunderstanding that “streaming games” is the same thing as “notnhving physical media”. It’s not. Netflix is roughly equivalent to Gamepass. The actual streaming bit of Netflix is not really comparable to the streaming but of game streaming.

Netflix = Xbox Gamepass
Game streaming = something else

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Lummox60N
21/3/2019 07:36:56 pm

While agree with all of the above, what bothers me is that, yes, "Google" has the heft to do it, but...
...it's "Google", right? So, we'll have annual updates to the controllers, won't we?
Except I won't, living in the hinterlands of society my broadband connection is as strong and stable as...well...you can insert your own political reference here. I shan't have the opportunity to take part in this for, well, a decade at best.
Which is fine, because by then Google will either have refined the service, the Mk.13 controller'll be the best thing to hold since the N64's and the cost'll have come down significantly.
Or, well, and here's the other misgiving I have, they'll have given it up for a bad job and binned the whole concept. Like Google Glass. Or Google+. Or...um...I dunno...Google Pantaloons? Was that a thing? Maybe it was just a dream, that one.

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Alex P
21/3/2019 08:16:35 pm

I would buy Google pantaloons

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Rudy Manchego link
21/3/2019 08:03:00 pm

This and the previous article are pretty much the nail on the head. Streaming games isn’t a new faddy controller or console where you have to waggle something at the screen like a bellend, this is a content control and delivery mechanism that manufacturers, publishers and a lot of casual consumers actually want.

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Nin
21/3/2019 08:46:19 pm

I've no desire to repeat what I said in the last post and especially not as you apparently don't care about those who disagree with you. MySpace has, in an act of perfect timing, made my case for me this week by losing 12 damn years of content. It may be inevitable but I've no desire to contribute to what will ultimately be an act of mass cultural vandalism.

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Gaz Numaaan
21/3/2019 08:52:19 pm

In much the same way punk rock was considered to be mass cultural vandalism by those who came before it and refused to change with the times?

"so now i'm alone
now i can think for myself
about little deals
and S.U.'s
and things that i just don't understand"

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Ashley
21/3/2019 10:04:32 pm

I think there's room for both types of platform to be honest. There is no reason why streaming and physical media can't compliment each other. If I like something on Spotify I'll buy the vinyl, if I stream a film and love it I'll buy the blu Ray. Why should games be any different? Perhaps the shift away from physical media might even be a good thing, maybe it'll be the end of ridiculous dlc and loot boxes? Maybe there won't be a need for them when we can just switch the stream to something else?

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Mister Biffo
21/3/2019 10:51:49 pm

Mick a mock! More and lewis. The snake! 4text

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James Walker
21/3/2019 11:28:31 pm

“It's like when you know it's going to rain, right before it does. The wind picks up, curling the leaves. The air shifts, the light changes... you can just sense it.”
Fucking great writing right there.
And I’m not just being a big suck up.

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EggyRoo
22/3/2019 02:31:01 am

Probably won’t get read as comment 62 but...

I love digitiser and your writing. I also love games. I started on some paddle based pong thing my parents bought and then on to a zx spectrum.

I’ve owned a NES, an amiga, a mega drive, a PS1 and now a PS4.

Sure, the amiga zealots are stupid to keep moaning but I do feel that when you turn your back on a platform with some excellent games, you are really saying that you’re not interested in games. I can understand the decision not to review amiga games as digitiser didn’t have the budget to buy an A500 but your sound just like your write-off of VR- which clearly IS the future and your first paragraph of this article could equally be written with VR in mind.

Yes I’ve bought a PSVR but I’m not writing this out of some stupid loyalty to it or to save face after buying some dead-on-arrival mega-CD type hardware. I’m happy to spend money on this stuff as (a) it’s great (RE7 in VR is like nothing else and Wipeout is the game from the future we always dreamed of), and (b) I’m all for supporting something that hold promise of new and different gaming avenues instead of the Hollywood-type franchise rehashes we are now inundated with.

Bit of a ramble and I’ve lost my way a bit but in summary: I’m sad that you don’t like good games as much as I do.

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Geebs
22/3/2019 06:28:08 pm

Yeah, Google may not be OnLive, but Phil “Philthy Liar” Harrison is still the same guy who not only claimed that the infamous Killzone 2 footage was running on a real PS3 (despite the fact that the developers hadn’t even started making the actual game engine when the footage was released), and doubled down on the lie when called on it.

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Almighty Casual
23/3/2019 08:11:28 pm

I hope it's good, and it works.

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Tom
25/3/2019 04:38:25 pm

*yawn*

Another "this is the future, deal with it" article. Just like all those predicting that mobile devices would make consoles irrelevant in the early 10s. Then the latest generation of consoles came along, sold in record numbers, and caught publishers with their pants down.

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Eggs Benedict
25/3/2019 11:34:46 pm

I'd argue that this new partnership with Nintendo rather than being a separate venture is all tied in with the streaming project, it's worth noting that Cupbonce on switch will come with xbox acheivements with no doubt some sort of sign up required. A Trojan horse, Xbox games streaming on switch with Uncle Ninty getting a slice of the rancid pie

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