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WHY GOOGLE'S STADIA IS GAME-CHANGING

20/3/2019

48 Comments

 
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I don't want to say I told you so... but I told you so. On the 10th of January this year, in fact.

I'm the most awesome guy ever!!!!!!

To be honest, it's not even that undeniable fact about me being awesome, but more that I've generally had - across 26 years of writing about games - a pretty good sense of things. My tastes in gaming lean towards the more mainstream end of things, see. I've learned that if I like or dislike the idea of something... the majority tend to be feeling the same. I'm fundamentally quite lazy in terms of how I consume my entertainment, and I suspect most people are the same. 

Inevitably, when I predicted the imminent mainstream arrival of cloud-based gaming, I was told I was wrong, that the world isn't ready, that consoles were going to be around forever, and... blah blah.

Well, Google appears to disagree with you.

Its new Stadia platform - which you surely don't need me to recap here, but it's a cloud-based gaming system that will work on essentially any screen, and the only hardware Google will sell is a joypad - was announced yesterday at a Game Designers Conference Keynote.

The timing of this is really quite pertinent, because I had an update earlier this week about the new Atari VCS console - which I backed mostly because I thought it'd be funny - and as I was reading how it has been delayed because they're making the hardware EVEN BETTER... I couldn't escape the sense that what they're trying to achieve is ultimately futile.

I don't think anybody is expecting this VCS thing to be able to compete with Sony and Microsoft, but the succession of bigger and better hardware feels old fashioned now. With the leap between the previous generation of consoles and the current one being virtually imperceptible to most people, it feels like that part of gaming history belongs in the past. 
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EXCITEDBOY
​Get this: the last time I got this excited about a new generation of gaming technology was the Switch, duh, and the time before that was... I dunno. The 32-bit era, probably. Hardware no longer interests me; at some point my focus went from the machines to the games. 

Admittedly, I've wanted a high-end gaming PC for years, but what has put me off was a) The price, b) The faff of getting games to work on said PC, and kee) That PC being out-of-date almost as soon as I've set it up, and spent an hour crying about what else I could've spent the money on. 

The Xbox and PlayStation brands have become increasingly boring with every iteration, and doing their best to pretend they're not sat there under your telly... so why not just do away with them? Isn't that the way hardware is evolving, in the same way our simian ancestors ceased to have any need for a tail? It's the logical evolutionary end point of console gaming. We're finally down from the trees and fannying around with "bronze". 

Even Sony seems to accept that it's the future, with PlayStation Now still going after five years, and Microsoft working on its Project xCloud service. Plus, there are numerous games streaming services already available. Some are better than others, naturally, but - generally - the consensus is that they're mostly pretty good. Yes, lag is an issue, but for the majority of people it's an issue that they can live with.

Of course, Google's Stadia has activated the alarms, primarily over the concern that most users' internet connections aren't going to be able to handle it, and because Google is perceived as one of those big, evil, megacorporations whose every action has to be part of some insidious conspiracy.

Well, I've got some strong things to say about that. ​
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APART 
The thing is, what sets Google's Stadia apart from all similar services is this: Google. There's no bigger company in the world, in terms of resources, manpower, or influence. If cloud-based gaming is going to take off, you need a company of that size to make it happen.

When the Americans decided to land on the moon, it threw every federal dollar it had at it, and employed the best people. It didn't knock on the door of some local fireworks manufacturer and asked them if they had any good ideas and left-over rockets they weren't using.

Admittedly, you could say the same about Facebook, whose own efforts to move into gaming haven't exactly been a runaway success, but Oculus Rift et al are held back by the fundamental issues baked into Virtual Reality as a concept.

The difference with Stadia is that console-free gaming is the best idea in gaming since, well... gaming. Forget the potential flaws for a minute, and bask in the possibilities:

You'll never have to buy another console.
Your hardware will never be out of date.
Every game you play will be running on the best available hardware.
There'll be no installation, no updates, no patches.
Games won't need to be optimised for different platforms.


If it works as well as Google is telling us it'll work, it does away with most of the biggest barriers to enjoying video games.

And, let's face it, following the cartridge era and the early years of CD-ROM, it has stopped being possible to simply put in a game disc and start playing. I even put off playing new games, because I know I've often got a 30-minute to two-hour wait for a load of updates to happen. I'm done with it, and I miss just picking up a joypad and playing. Stadia promises to bring that back.
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STRIKES
The strikes against Stadia are that players will no longer own a physical copy of their games - fair enough, but some people said the same thing about Netflix, Spotify and Apple Music... and those services have demonstrated pretty conclusively that the majority of people generally favour convenience over having shelves full of DVDs and CDs. 

Yes, there are a lot of collectors out there, but... the unfortunate reality for you, if you're one of "those", is that you're in the minority. The good thing for you is this, however: I certainly don't think hardware is ever going to go away entirely. Even if consoles all drown in a tar pit, I suspect you'll still be able to buy a high-end PC, and boxed games. 

Although, lest we forget the aforementioned dreaded day one patch - when you buy a game now, are you always buying the completed game anyway? What's on your disc? Really, it's just the best version of the game they could achieve by launch day.

Do you really still own the games you buy? What happens when you run out of storage space and need to delete them?

SCABS
We don't yet know if Stadia users will still be required to buy the games at full price, or have pay a subscription, but I suspect it might be a combination of what Apple and Netflix offer. I reckon you'll be able to pay full-price for games on the day of release... and there'll also be a subscription element, offering older games. There may even be the option to rent games for a limited amount of time. 

​For now, the biggest brown cloud hanging over Stadia is the whole internet connection issue. Ironically, while I was watching Google's live stream last night, the picture kept freezing, which wasn't the best advert for Stadia.

​And yet... just doing a quick speed test this morning, and even my crappy BT Broadband connection appears to be well within the comfort zone of what Google is saying Stadia users will need (a streaming rate of 15bps, a latency under 40ms, and a streaming loss below 5% - whatever any of that means).

Will there be issues? Probably. But I remember being sceptical about Netflix when I first got it - I couldn't understand how a full-HD movie could appear instantly on my telly without downloading it first - and while I do occasionally have issues... they're so infrequent as to not be an issue.

Gaming is different, of course, because it's interactive - and your inputs will be sent back to Google's processing farm before the results are streamed back to you. The lag between what you do and what appears on your screen needs to be instantaneous. With the added complication of the Stadia controller connecting to wifi, and not hardware, that adds additional potential for lag. 

​Clearly, a lot of people feel that this is an insurmountable issue.
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DISAPPEAR
It isn't of course. I don't think anybody is suggesting that Stadia will launch and consoles just choke to death on their updates overnight.

However, technology will improve... as I've said, there have been streaming services available for games for years already, which demonstrate that technology is getting closer to this ideal all the time... and as mentioned, none of the existing companies have the influence and reach of a Google.

That's the key here: Google will, I'm certain, be putting pressure on ISPs to make their service accessible to everyone. You mark my words: ISPs will get on board, and want to be known as the ones who will give you the best Stadia experience, while punters are going to want to upgrade their own internet set-ups to ensure they can get on board with this.

I read a fair bit of Stadia criticism on Twitter from employees of existing streaming services, but it's akin to a "Mom and pop" hardware store owner complaining about the new Wal-Mart that's opened up over the road.

Is it fair that Stadia threatens their business? No, of course not... but that's life, sadly. Competitive online players who thrive on split-second reactions will doubtless find plenty to complain about... While the rest of us, who can barely tell the difference between 60fps and 30fps, won't notice a thing. We'll just be happy that we can open our laptops and jump straight into Assassin's Creed Oblong.

Like it or not, cloud-based gaming is going to be massive, simply because it's a great idea, and it's a great idea that is appealing to a mass market. And that's because it fixes, if it works, so many of the problems with modern gaming.

Is it too good to be true? Maybe. But so was the Internet, so were smartphones, so was Netflix, so were e-readers, so was television... and right now the potential for Stadia is so significant, so game-changing - literally - I'm willing to invest in that potential.
48 Comments
Wapojif
20/3/2019 09:15:42 am

Google is the type of company that'll put all focus on delivering an amazeballs technical experience to satisfy the graphics and tech bores, but will the games be any good?

I really am bored shipless (yes, shipless) of the endless stream of hyper violent AAA snorefests.

Kudos to Google for doing something a little bit new, but the games showcased look as insipid as they come. The only title that bothers me this year is Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Other than that I'm addicted to Downwell and Tetris 99.

What a bloody misery guts I am.

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Mr Biffo
20/3/2019 09:22:33 am

Surely though, eventually, all games will be available on it?

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Wapojif
20/3/2019 10:24:01 am

Even Mole Mania on the Game Boy? I'd totally sign up for that, man.

fatnick link
20/3/2019 09:19:14 am

"Hardware no longer interests me; at some point my focus went from the machines to the games."

I think we were always chiefly interested in the games - it was just that up until the DC and PS2 the content of the games was tied chiefly to the hardware.

Once we got to the point where we could animate an entire 3d city, everything after that is a bit *shrug*

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MerseyMal
20/3/2019 09:19:43 am

Hope it fares better than OnLive did.

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CNightwing
20/3/2019 09:26:05 am

A further downside to not owning even a digital copy of a game will be the death of free mods. Just as consoles had started to embrace user inventiveness and the publishers had poked at monetising others' work, we'll no longer have access to the code needed to even make a mod in the first place. It'll become a fenced off market, tightly controlled and monetised by the publishers.

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Azimov
20/3/2019 06:58:54 pm

Good point, hadn't thought about the whole modding scene.
I guess console players aren't so into that anyway.

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Craggar
20/3/2019 09:27:57 am

I not sure I agree that this will be the 'end of consoles'. You can build reasonably capable PCs for not-much-more than console prices these days, so why do they still exist? Because exclusives. I don't think Sony is going to get on board and stick their exclusives on Stadia, though the same probably isn't true of Microsoft who seem to be trying to make PC and xbox interchangable in terms of library. As long as Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo have money to either create their own exclusives or buy exclusive rights from other studios, consoles will continue to exist. I see this more just taking a chunk out of the PC hardware market.

I fully expect to be proved wrong on the above, but I just can't shake the feeling that this is "just" a PC competitor, not a console competitor.

I'm interested to see what happens with this - I'll certainly give it a whirl to see if it works for me - but having tried to use Steam Link over wifi from my livingroom to my study (the next room over), I do have my reservations as that setup just doesn't work - it has to be a wired connection for consistency. But maybe that's Valve's fault and, like you say, if anyone can do it - Google can.

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evildave
20/3/2019 09:36:19 am

This platform will be chockful of advertising (using their shady algorithms) as they squeeze every last penny from it.

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Nikki
20/3/2019 09:43:26 am

All depends on the price... if it's a £6.99 subscription service like Netflix and I get to play all the games I like, then I could tolerate the always online and don't actually own anything aspects, as long as the service isn't full of small games that I could get for £9.99 and play offline and own.

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Phil
20/3/2019 09:53:38 am

'fannying around with "bronze"'

Is that supposed to sound rude? For an innocuous line it made me chuckle a lot, but I do have the mind of a child.

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Moonbucket
20/3/2019 09:54:46 am

The whole 'you won't own the game' complaints are probably coming from folk with massive steam libraries! But for me a sense of ownership in the PC days ended when we lost the ability to operate our own servers for games back in the hryday of PC gaming clans.

Nvidia's Shield TV provides a very decent cloud game streaming service with presumably a fraction of Google's resources. With 5G mobile, it is not being Nostradamus to predict being able to stream full fat gaming on the go on almost any connected device.

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Tw
20/3/2019 09:59:37 am

Where are you getting those connection requirements from? Every other outlet seems to say there's been no word on that yet. (Also, you missed the M out of Mbps, unless they're using *really* good compression...)

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Craggar
20/3/2019 10:04:01 am

Kotaku has an interview with Phil Harrison where he said:
“We were able to test a lot of this with our Project Stream test late last year, starting back in October. To get 1080p, 60 frames per second, required approximately 25 megabits per second. In fact, we use less than that, but that’s where we put our recommended limit at."

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Tw
20/3/2019 10:16:25 am

Yeah, I know. But *this* article quotes 15Mbps with specific latency and packet loss requirements. Does Biffo have special inside source? I mean Digi's great but it's not the sort of site I'd expect to bag that sort of exclusive...

Geebs
20/3/2019 02:21:07 pm

I’ve seen estimates that 15 MBps will get you 720p, so you can party like it’s 2001.

Geebs
20/3/2019 02:29:02 pm

For the sake of comparison, about 10-15 MBps will get you decent quality in-home streaming at 1080p60. Thing is, I have “15 MBps” ADSL which is more like 1 MBps on a good day, downhill and with a following wind, so you need to adjust estimates based on how much of a filthy liar your ISP happens to be.

Nick
20/3/2019 10:10:22 am

I’m a grumpy old git I know but, who cares? I’m not really a collector but I like to own something. It’s an illusion I know and a lot of the discs will be an unpatched mess when the servers shut down. I still buy music on CD like some sad 90s washout.
I suppose Netflix for games sounds grand, tech issues which I don’t understand aside. As long as it’s a curated service. Streaming the Steam Store sounds like hell on earth.

I wonder what Nintendo will do. Probably their own bespoke service that you can only play on an electric beach ball or some such nonsense.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
20/3/2019 12:50:28 pm

Game streaming is actually already available for the Switch, which can stream Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Resident Evil 7.

However, that's only available in Japan since Nintendo aren't convinced that it can be replicated in the US to an acceptable level of quality.

So if the US isn't seeing it any time soon, then what does that mean for Europe? Well, based on past performance, two decades from now Nintendo will begrudgingly reveal their own game-streaming equivalent in Europe, but it'll require you to have a direct cabled connection to a Nintendo server, you'll need to have their Friend code to access it, and you'll only be able to play 20 NES games on it anyway.

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RG
20/3/2019 10:12:13 am

My concern is that the makers of games will feel the squeeze in a subscription model. You can see that it has already happened to music with streaming, Spotify, YouTube et al. Only the very biggest of artists are making as much money from it.

With a gaming subscription model, I can't see as much money filtering down to publishers and developers. I guess they would be paid per play / per minute. If your subscription includes all games - I can't see people being focused enough to play games to the end. With new shiny games coming out every 5 minutes, would people play enough of a game to make it worth making 60+ hour epics? Will this harm story based games in favour of online games as a service.

I agree that it is inevitable. The hardware arms race can't continue forever. Games can't continue to keep getting bigger and more detailed - it already takes years to make AAA games. But I worry what we will be trading off in the name of convenience.

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Jim
20/3/2019 10:50:31 pm

You're exactly right, us small to mid size game developers will get screwed by it, but the subscription and streaming models are coming, there is no stopping it :(

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PanamaJoe
21/3/2019 01:47:14 am

"I guess they would be paid per play / per minute."
That's an interesting point, and a worrying prospect. If publisher and developer profits will be dictated by how long their games are played it will surely kill off the play-once story-based games (which I prefer) and instead make repetitive grind-fests, with never-ending levelling up, a lot more common.

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JactusCack
20/3/2019 10:14:45 am

I mean let's face it. It's an economic inevitability providing cloud services is cheaper than hardware logistics.

All other things being equal (performance) then money is the driver.

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Ridiculous Human
20/3/2019 10:18:43 am

"While the rest of us, who can barely tell the difference between 60fps and 30fps, won't notice a thing."

Do people still claim this?

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Nick
20/3/2019 10:21:10 am

Sort of.

If it's a locked rate at 30 or above I'm hard pressed to care.

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Dangerous Dave
21/3/2019 11:27:50 am

Only utter plebs a who haven’t got a gaming PC and unironically use a MacBook (which likely cost twice as much as a decent gaming PC)

Honestly, why the fuck an I even on this website, I didn’t realise how much of a console peasant Biffo was.

The controller connects via WiFi? Seriously?

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Grembot
20/3/2019 10:44:16 am

It’s a good idea until everyone is doing it and you have to subscribe to multiple things to be able to play everything.

At least Nintendo will be ten years behind and I’ll still be able to consume games in a way I can make sense of.

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Pete Davison link
20/3/2019 11:21:56 am

As a collector, aspiring gaming historian, grumpy old git and someone who is firmly comfortable with how out of touch with the mainstream he is... I hate everything about Stadia.

I can appreciate how it would be desirable and convenient for mainstream players, the sort of person who picks up Call of Duty, FIFA and maybe a couple of blockbusters a year. And I'm absolutely fine with it existing in that regard.

In fact, I'd even be firmly in favour of dedicated gaming hardware being less powerful and less expensive (for both developers and consumers) and remaining home to interesting, lower-budget exclusives that you can actually buy and own in physical form, while triple-A blockbusters make the jump to tech like Stadia. This would almost certainly lower overheads for triple-A developers as they'd only have to develop for one standardised platform rather than several.

But I don't want Stadia.

Games are important to me. They are important on a deep, personal level; they have emotional resonance and cultural significance. They have worth and value as possessions as well as experiences. They are worth more to me than being lost in a subscription service, never to be played, always to be forgotten about.

I've stopped buying digital games almost entirely, especially on Steam, because I value the experiences I have too much. I was a member of Humble Monthly for a couple of months because it seemed like astronomical value -- and it sort of is -- but I cancelled it when I realised I was just adding list items that I'd almost immediately forget about to a non-tangible digital library that held no real "value" to me.

I want to see games on my shelf and think either "oh, I really enjoyed that" or "I'm looking forward to getting stuck into that". The lesser-known, more obscure games I play, for the most part (though sadly not quite all!), release complete and without patches and updates, and with only minor DLC additions, so those boxed copies retain their value and historical significance.

I want to be able to admire my library and have the fun experience of pulling something random off the shelf I perhaps haven't tried before. I want to be able to show something tangible to family, friends, readers, viewers. I want the simple satisfaction of having a physical collection to curate and display; my own personal "museum" of my gaming history that I can look back on at my leisure.

Stadia doesn't allow me to do any of that, so I despise it.

Am I out of touch? Sure. Am I being unreasonable? Probably. But I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

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Dave
20/3/2019 12:40:39 pm

You could replace the words 'game' with 'vinyl' and 'Stadia' with 'Spotify'. You'll still be able to get the experience you want, but the times they are a-changin'.

I can see people with smart TVs loading up the PlayStation/Xbox/Nintendo app and then streaming games after paying a monthly fee. Do manufacturers still make a loss on every console sold? They'll be well up for cutting that out.

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HdE
20/3/2019 12:46:53 pm

I don't want Stadia either. The thing is, I have a worrying feeling that a lot of folks will overlook these concerns and cough up the asking price to use it in light of everything Google are promising.

It's not getting a penny from me, though. Because I'm pretty resolute when it comes to not supporting things I don't like.

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Craig Grannell
20/3/2019 11:37:56 am

The physical media ship has sailed. Gaming history is screwed regardless, due to the requirements of online gaming, and the likes of mobile shedding massive chunks of its past on a regular basis. So that aspect doesn't overly concern me, although it doesn't bode well for future gaming historians.

But this caught my eye:

"Google. There's no bigger company in the world, in terms of resources, manpower, or influence."

There's also no bigger company that stamps all over the competition, gets bored, and then closes stuff down without warning. Even Apple isn't as bad as Google in that regard. Lob in some of the worst privacy practices in the world, and you have a recipe for something that isn't as tasty as it looks at a first glance.

Also: that gamepad looks shit.

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Eddhorse
21/3/2019 07:29:19 am

This reply is similar to what I was thinking. Anyone remember the next big thing, Google Glass? Shut down overnight even though a lot of companies were developing for it, mine included.
Technically I dont think we are far off Stadia. I prefer hardware.

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RichardM
20/3/2019 12:53:08 pm

I read something about ‘connecting to the Google data centre by wifi’ and did not understand at all what they meant - I do not have a Google Data Centre in the vicinity of my house. I do have the fastest internet BT provide, but haven’t tested it and have no idea if it’ll be quick enough. I assume it will, given that it would otherwise rule out just about everyone in the UK using it.

Assuming the pricing is like £30 for a controller, £10 a month for the service, and regular / slightly cheaper games, presumably with some free older stuff a la movie streaming services, I’m up for it.

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RichardM
20/3/2019 12:57:54 pm

Forgot to add: the main barrier to entry for me at present to console gaming is £300ish on a console and game, and time / screen real estate. I can’t really justify that outlay on something I’ll rately use. This seems like it’d work for me! Also: I’m sure some clever bods will come out with a case mod, so the undisputed best controller ever - wireless 360 - can be used instead.

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Robobob
20/3/2019 01:48:04 pm

If music and films tell us anything it's that there'll still almost certainly be a reasonable length of crossover period where both download and physical have significant market shares.

So if it's the end of consoles it's entirely possible but it seems likely that it will still take some time for them to phase out, although you rightly acknowledge that Stadia launching will not kill consoles overnight.

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Chinnyhill
20/3/2019 02:06:51 pm

Great for everyone who has a decent internet connection and/or 4G unlimited bandwidth. Not so for those of us on the end of a few miles of ancient copper which already precludes us from the current gen of consoles and their multi gigabyte game patches.

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Johnc
20/3/2019 04:48:51 pm

The specs for 5g seem to suggest it will be more suitable than broadband for streamed gaming. Maybe that's the future?

I'm unconvinced that it will be Google that cracks streamed gaming though. Wave, Google+ and Inbox were all great ideas but failures. I suspect that Microsoft are best placed due to the established presence in gaming married to huge cloud computing infrastructure.

It doesn't really matter who wins though does it? That would only matter if we had to invest in the platform - like buying a betamax VCR. But the beauty of this is the lack of up-front investment on our part. We can jump between services when we want and probably will.

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Rub link
20/3/2019 05:40:51 pm

Physical media still firmly rules the roost here - not only is it generally cheaper than downloads, even brand new, it means I can plug a disc into the ps3 in the spare room that isn't activated on anybodies psn account and still be able to pay the game! ... Until the lad tries to use his paid-for DLC.. The digital stuff only works on specific machines, which is a bit of a pain.

But. . we use netflix and prime video, I cant remember the last time we bought a DVD. If Google have a similar monthly price point, on an all-you-can-eat basis, I can see it really taking off. Price the games individually, I'd simply not see the point.

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Wonky Tom
21/3/2019 11:48:01 am

See, the thing with streaming movies and audio is that those streams are non-interactive. It doesn’t matter that it takes Netflix an entire second between you pressing “play” and video actually happening on your screen, it doesn’t matter that up to 30 seconds of video gets buffered in the background, to allow for WiFi interference or random broadband turbulence.
When you’re streaming games, these things absolutely do matter.
Steaming sites like Netflix and Spotify use all sorts of clever tricks to make you think your internet connection is stable, consistent and always-on. The fact is it isn’t.

Any PC gamer already knows this. Where the difference between a ping of 50 or 100 directly correlates to whether you win or lose, you tend to pay close attention to the vagueries or packet loss, hitter and ping spikes. There is not one ISP in the whole of the UK that doesn’t suffer from these issues.

I’m on virgin media fiver optic 350mbit, the fastest home broadband service in the UK, with virgin’s infrastructure bypassing much of the congestion found on ADSL ISPs. When I play something like Overwatch or PUBG or League of Legends, I’m using a tiny amount of bandwidth, 10Kbps to 50kbps. Even those games frequently stutter and lag out for no descernable reason, on the fastest and most stable connection it’s possible to have in the UK.

The idea that you simply won’t notice the lag on a 15mbit+ stream, with a WiFi control pad, is fucking ridiculous.

Maybe streaming games will work in the future when we have fiber optic connections all the way to our living rooms, but definitely not in 2019, 2020 or 2021...

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Bilstar
20/3/2019 06:03:54 pm

Like a lot of people, I'm a little sceptical, but I do really wanna see what the actual package with the price and specs and everything looks like. You make some good points there Mr B. We shall see.

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Adam Villarreal
20/3/2019 06:19:53 pm

My feelings fall between general indifference and tepid optimism. I don't think I personally have a use for a streaming only future for gaming, but you never know until it arrives. Plus, out here in the US, internet speed varies depending on where you live so I don't see this becoming mainstream, at least here, yet.

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Nin
20/3/2019 06:22:20 pm

Unfortunately streaming is probably the future but I think this is coming too early.
I also think new systems bring new problems and where Google goes, others will follow. Looking forward to 10 different companies offering this service, each with their own exclusives. That's before EA and the other big developers go it alone too. It'll make the current console wars look quaint.
PS Now is 5 years old, and who uses it? No-one.
Predictions then? This will go the same way as the Switch and the Wii U. For the next gen at least, it'll be no more than a 2nd "console" for the people who can afford it. A few months subscription and for most that controller will then sit gathering dust.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
20/3/2019 09:06:02 pm

So the hoarder part of me that really likes physically owning media sort of wants to object to this, and I do have massive concerns about how viable it is given the UK's current internet infrastructure.

BUT!

Since getting Netflix years ago I have bought maybe two Blu-Rays, and since getting Marvel Unlimited I have bought one single Marvel trade paperback that I needed to complete my favourite series. iTunes had already basically replaced my need for CDs, and Spotify then eliminated the need for iTunes. It wasn't an ideological thing about digital over physical, it just kind of happened out of convenience, and I don't honestly mind. If the technology for game streaming can work around our internet infrastructure's limitations, then it will likely be huge.

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Penyrolewen
20/3/2019 10:21:20 pm

Lots of interesting thoughts in both the article and the comments. My main concern, on thinking about this a bit, is similar to one of the other comments; would all games start to feel disposable?
This has happened with music due to streaming services. I don’t think it’s the same for films. With films, you buy it, watch it, you’re done. You may rewatch some but usually, that’s it. Netflix or dvd, who cares? With music, you usually listen over and over again. I’ve found, now that basically everything is available instantly, that if something doesn’t grab me straight away, that’s it, I’m onto the next thing. When I BOUGHT music, it got a good 10+ listens (of an album) before I decided I didn’t like it. Often the ‘slow burners’ turned out to be the best.
Would we, as another comment asked, put in the effort with a gentle, long, tough game or be off to the next bright, flashing, new thing?

Or would it end up more like mobile games? Why invest millions in some epic that’ll drift into obscurity (and off the front page of the store or whatever) very quickly when you could make candy crush angry flappy birds?

The concept - no consoles, the best hardware at all times, loads of games - sounded great at first. I’m just a bit worried it might change the whole approach to games.

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Fancy Pants
20/3/2019 10:25:01 pm

The comparison with, say, Spotify usurping CDs is not accurate. Leaving aside the sound quality difference between 320k mp3 files and CD audio, you essentially get the same product - the music - delivered in a different way, with no discernible downgrade. It’s not like the music sounds mostly the same, but sometimes will drop to a lower bitrate, stop altogether, or break up when listening to some fast dance floor riddims.

Input lag, graphical artefacts on fast moving games (anyone ever tried a FPS on GeForce Now?) and complete dropouts make the game streaming experience vastly inferior to playing a locally installed game. And I have 300mb fibre.

Probably alright for slow paced games, no good for anything requiring fast input and screen update.

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Fancy Pants
20/3/2019 10:34:41 pm

And another thing(s): comparing this to Netflix is wrong as well. Netflix vs DVD ownership is really the same as games on disc vs games you download and install (despite Netflix being a streaming service).

One more: has anyone who thinks Stadia is the next big thing, or will even offer a gaming experience comparable to a PS3 used PlayStation Now, GeForce Now or even Onlive? All three work (or worked in the case of Onlive), but are in now way close to locally installed games.

Could be wrong but it doesn’t sound like Mr Biffo has used any of the stuff I mention.

Reply
Studas
20/3/2019 11:49:36 pm

Great article, I enjoyed reading this one more than usual.

Reply
CdrJameson
20/3/2019 11:52:42 pm

Well, they're going to have to make Chrome a hell of a lot snappier for this to work, which should have wider benefits. It didn't have the most respectable input lag the last time I looked at it so any improvement there is welcome.

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