Current Events > Google stadia is good in theory, but doomed in practice.

(+) Yeah! (+)

America just simply does not have the broadband infrastructure to handle it, and won't any time soon since the ISPs have been fighting upgrading it. When even major cities, even in tech and business heavy places struggle with their connections, rural areas are fucked.

I live in a major city, have a 60meg connection, and even my wifi on my phone will run slow if I'm downloading a game on ps4.

I really don't know what Google is thinking tbqh. Maybe if you live in Seoul or Tokyo you'll be fine, but not in the US, not in the UK, etc..
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Even if we have conditions where the product works perfectly you still have the inherent problem that you need to stream games off a server. No way to back them up. No way to play them offline. Once they're gone that's it.

Both Microsoft and Sony will offer it as an alternative. Stadia has it as the only choice. That's an inherent disadvantage they haven't offered any solution for.
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The thing is Google has so much damn money they're just gonna throw money around and offer a s*** ton of stuff for free and people will gravitate towards it.

I have a feeling that if they succeed and if low entry-fee, online-only gaming is the future then the quality of gaming is gonna get even worse.
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Darmik posted...

Even if we have conditions where the product works perfectly you still have the inherent problem that you need to stream games off a server. No way to back them up. No way to play them offline. Once they're gone that's it.

Both Microsoft and Sony will offer it as an alternative. Stadia has it as the only choice. That's an inherent disadvantage they haven't offered any solution for.

True, if your net has an outage, you're fucked.
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konokonohamaru posted...

The thing is Google has so much damn money they're just gonna throw money around and offer a s*** ton of stuff for free and people will gravitate towards it.

I have a feeling that if they succeed and if low entry-fee, online-only gaming is the future then the quality of gaming is gonna get even worse.

This is more or less already a thing. What single player games we do get are often heavily monetized. The online ones are inundated with monetization obviously toom
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I agree this has a lot to do with location, but if Google pulls this off it could change things forever. I was very concerned about the launch lineup, but they had a great presentation. They will eventually need some Sports Titles though.

It maybe time for the Stadia to get it's on board on this site. It may not be competition for the Xbox or Playstation, but definitely a rival for the Switch.
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pres_madagascar posted...

Darmik posted...

Even if we have conditions where the product works perfectly you still have the inherent problem that you need to stream games off a server. No way to back them up. No way to play them offline. Once they're gone that's it.

Both Microsoft and Sony will offer it as an alternative. Stadia has it as the only choice. That's an inherent disadvantage they haven't offered any solution for.

True, if your net has an outage, you're fucked.

And what about when it's not profitable enough for them to keep a niche game on their servers to stream anymore? It's not a one off download. It's a constant stream. Multiplayer servers are shut down for less bandwidth.

Of course what if the Stadia isn't successful? Doesn't matter if you bought a Wii U, an N-Gage or a Ouya. You can still play those systems. Hell it's sometimes pretty cool to have a little niche system like that. If Stadia dies it's gone forever. No way to go back to it or have one to call your own.
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I don't know much about it but if Google was ever smart about it, the initial loading of a game would be cached. At least in some sort. I know games like to be 80 GBs for the lulz these days, but hopefully they're bringing on developers that have an iota of sense when it comes to real 'streaming' If done right it works, if the developer is lazy you're redownloading the shit every time

Shinnokxz posted...

I don't know much about it but if Google was ever smart about it, the initial loading of a game would be cached. At least in some sort. I know games like to be 80 GBs for the lulz these days, but hopefully they're bringing on developers that have an iota of sense when it comes to real 'streaming' If done right it works, if the developer is lazy you're redownloading the shit every time

You're not downloading anything outside of a Stadia program. You're streaming the game that is already installed on an external server.

If you've ever played Remote Play on your PS4 it's like that. But that PS4 is in a Google server farm.
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It's not even good in theory tbh unless you're traveling a lot. And if that's the case a Switch is a way better deal.
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