What is Stadia?

Geeky

New streaming service ala Steam?  New platform ala PlayStation?  

Aethaeryn

A way to buy games without a console. . you stream the games you buy directly to a device but are possibly able to get 4K and HDR etc.

So like Steam but you don't download.  I was super excited about it because I was tired of upgrading my PC . . but then I upgraded my PC for other reasons.

I guess if I can get ray tracing at 60FPS in 4K in the future I will give it a shot.  It is going to depend a lot on your network and internet connection.  No reason to "buy" it right now.  You need a recurring membership to get the 4K though I believe so I am not sure about the savings long term?  also network congestion.

frostymug

next project for Google to abandon or continually tweak until you abandon it

Quizzical

One answer is that it's gaming on a thin client.  If you've ever had the misfortune of having to use a thin client, that means exactly what you think it means.

Another answer is that it's an improved (but still bad) version of OnLive, which deservedly went bankrupt.

MMOExposed

DMKano said:

frostymug said:

next project for Google to abandon or continually tweak until you abandon it

So much this.

RIP Google Hangouts
RIP Glass

alkarionlog

meh I don't belive this would be going that well anyway, its already annoying you have a lag to servers, now you would have a double lag, on input and receiving.

remember kids is not becasue you do have a fast internet means everyone else does too, plus there is alwyas that time when your net is down

gervaise1

As said above Stadia is a Google project aimed at selling or renting you games that can be played on - whatever; maybe even a TV.

Microsoft and Sony are also planning to expand their current gaming services to include "streaming" - which seems to be a part of the collaboration they announced nack in May.

And what they have said, imo, is instructive: basically streaming will be possible but that the best option will be to have, in the case of MS, an XBox. (Sony Playstation of course) especially for mor e "demanding" games

Now a cynic might say that they would say that to protect their console sales but its the online bit that makes the money; console sales these days are considered "break even" (historically they made a loss). 

So on the one hand you have the Google view: any game can be streamed to any device. And on the other hand the more nuanced view of MS and Sony that suggests we don't ditch our hardware yet. I suppose it might come down to what games you play.

Gutlard

It'll be the best hour of HD gaming I'll ever want, for an hour before my data cap hits.

Gut Out!

Kumapon

Dedicated streaming services can't reliably manage to stream high quality vid at 30fps (no matter your pipe size, they still compress and have problems delivering it).

They say you *can* stream 4K with 35mb, but if you know anyone who actually tries it, they will tell you it stutters and goes blocky and has compression artifacts, etc.

Never mind the input lag.

For MMORPGs it's not hugely important to have very high FPS and resolution, sure.  There are some things you could do in low res, but to be honest, I find gaming on a modern console that manages 1080p60 painful compared to my PC rig, so I'm not going to want to play MMO's at 720p30 or whatever my phone can manage unless it's just to trade and craft or chat.  Even chat would be painful without a proper keyboard.

We need a *lot* more impressive infrastructure to make game streaming work well for anything more sophisticated than Angry Birds Online.

Relampago

I beat tested it with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, worked pretty well for me 1080p input lag was almost non existent but as someone said if you live with an internet service with data caps...

Jamar870

It's interactive TV.  Like interactive TV outside of your controls sending signals of what actions your character should do, it just like TV.  All the other stuff is done at the servers or as others point out it a thin client for gaming. Mention for the well situated, mostly refering to their ISP and any data caps they have.

Akaphalos

Geeky said:

New streaming service ala Steam?  New platform ala PlayStation?  

I would suggest nvidea geforce now. While it's still in beta it alows you to play games like guild wars 2 and such on you computer and not limited to what google allows on their platform.