Will Google Stadia fail?

[crazyflyingdonut]

I remember when I first heard that Google was going to attempt to enter into the videogame market. I started laughing my ass off and said "This is gonna flop, I just know it!" And right now, things aren't much different. I have noticed that recently, Google has been pushing nonstop advertisements on YouTube for Google Stadia, but... I'm gonna be completely honest with you. I seem to hardly notice the ads. I know they're there when they come on, but beyond that, I don't think much of them.

I haven't heard any hype for the Stadia either. Nothing on the news, nothing in public, nothing. You ever heard of the "Google Graveyard"? If not, then let me tell you about it. "Google Graveyard" is basically a website that lists everything that was ever owned by Google that was killed off. And there's a lot of stuff on there. I bet that Stadia is going to be on the graveyard sooner than I can even think of.

I'm also not sure why Google feels the need to do this. They make so much money from the things that they already provide, like searching for webpages and images, and other crap that I don't feel like mentioning right now. I don't think they'll be gaining much money from this.

I also haven't heard much about any third-party developers making games for the Stadia. Which raises a red flag for me, because I've done research on many things related to videogame history, and I've noticed that some consoles seem to end up failing due to a lack of third-party support.

What is your opinion on Google Stadia? Do you think it'll fail, like me? Or do you believe that it'll be the future of videogames?

[Kinsie]

It's not related to advertising or marketing (which is Google's primary business), its pricing is frankly hilarious and it's competing with game-streaming services by people that understand the marketplace (Playstation Now, the impending Project XCloud), so the odds of it seeing its third birthday are frankly pretty slim.

[Guapler]

I regret to join a tribe of naivety or pessimism. Beliefs better to be as far from tech as possibe for obvious reasons of non-appliance: After all, not a belief makes a computer to compute but the Math who is the foundation of our digital lives. [1] Over 50 years of Moore's Law moves us at an exponential pace. [2] Therefore tech keeps improving at such a pace fast, what was not possible before is possible now and according to the law more is coming. Opinions are not what any tech folk is dependent on first and foremost, objectivety is. So, time will tell, will see.

[1] The University of Chicago, "Math for Computer Science: Discrete Math," https://masters.cs.uchicago.edu/page/ma ... crete-math
[2] Intel, "Over 50 Years of Moore's Law," https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ology.html

[wildweasel]

I regret to join a tribe of naivety or pessimism. Beliefs better to be as far from tech as possibe for obvious reasons of non-appliance: After all, not a belief makes a computer to compute but the Math who is the foundation of our digital lives. [1] Over 50 years of Moore's Law moves us at an exponential pace. [2] Therefore tech keeps improving at such a pace fast, what was not possible before is possible now and according to the law more is coming. Opinions are not what any tech folk is dependent on first and foremost, objectivety is. So, time will tell, will see.

[1] The University of Chicago, "Math for Computer Science: Discrete Math," https://masters.cs.uchicago.edu/page/ma ... crete-math
[2] Intel, "Over 50 Years of Moore's Law," https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ology.html

Is literally any of this on-topic?

[Guapler]

Google Stadia is using tech: Computers, in fact, and the Math with the law are fully at work with Google Stadia. [1] If Google would use quantum computers, then a different set of tricks will go into play, the traditional laws of physics no longer apply. [2] Latency is important and so far it seems 5G plays an important role with its few milliseconds and high speeds to deliver a good multiplayer experience everywhere. [3] 5G fully comes to the EU in 2025. [4] This is why I prefer to wait. Plus no one knows how a customer in each country might react. It's kinda complex.

[1] The Verge, "Google Stadia uses a custom AMD chip to offer 10.7 teraflops of cloud gaming power," https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/1827 ... oud-gaming
[2] Forbes, "What Is Quantum Computing? A Super-Easy Explanation For Anyone," https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmar ... or-anyone/
[3] CNET, "How 5G aims to end network latency," https://www.cnet.com/news/how-5g-aims-t ... onse-time/
[4] European Commission, "Towards 5G," https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-mar ... towards-5g

[Rachael]

Google Stadia is using tech: Computers, in fact, and the Math with the law are fully at work with Google Stadia. [1]

They're using tech? No shit! Who knew?! I thought they were using bales of hay and piles of horse manure. It sure is amazing what you can accomplish with tech these days!

[Gez]

I definitely hope it fails, I'm opposed to everything about the Stadia model.

[jdredalert]

I definitely hope it fails, I'm opposed to everything about the Stadia model.

Do you mind elaborating a little bit more? (not being ironic or salty here, i'm really curious about it)

[Rachael]

I definitely hope it fails, I'm opposed to everything about the Stadia model.

Do you mind elaborating a little bit more? (not being ironic or salty here, i'm really curious about it)

I think Jim Sterling pretty much said it best.


One of the biggest concerns is game ownership. Once you no longer download the game, the game is no longer "yours" and we've actually lost games this way. Game corporations LOOOOOVE this idea, because it puts yet even more control in their hands, in addition to the massive amount of control they already abuse and exploit at our expense, and ideas like Stadia just couldn't make things sweeter for them.

Worse yet, once they decide to abandon a game - away it goes - forever - into the abyss. Never to be heard from again. No one will ever be able to recover a playable copy of the game - unless the game itself somehow leaks.

[Gez]

Do you mind elaborating a little bit more? (not being ironic or salty here, i'm really curious about it)

The game is run on a Google server farm, not on your device. This means that:

• You don't own the game. It's just a subscription. Your access to the game can be cut at any time.
• You also don't have direct access to the game, so say bye-bye to modding.
• From a cultural preservation viewpoint, it also means that when the game is removed from the service, it's removed from existence. It's not just you, it's everyone who loses access.
• There's the whole thing about the bandwidth consumed just for the video feed. This actually has a bigger impact than most people think.
• Obviously, you need your Internet access to be fully reliable. That's probably not a concern to most people, but it is to some.
• Also obviously, the Stadia model means that Google will get to know what games you're playing, when you're playing them, how you're playing them. Because you'll literally play them on their own computers. Just another brick in Big Data's wall.

So, from the viewpoints of consumer's rights, cultural preservation, environmental protection, and the right to privacy, I find Stadia and similar to be a very dangerous idea, one that I wish will not find traction.

[Chris]

Do you mind elaborating a little bit more? (not being ironic or salty here, i'm really curious about it)

In addition to the whole ownership problem, another issue is price. The pricing model is ridiculous. You have to pay full price for each game still, yet you're only given the privilege to stream it. Poorer response times, poorer video and audio quality (compression artifacts), limited video and audio options, all for the same price as playing locally with none of those issues. The basic/free Stadia version will be limited in resolution, and be limited to stereo sound. You have to pay Google an additional monthly fee if you want to get things like 4K or surround sound (still compressed, mind you). Is there even an option for 144hz or other >60hz modes? On top of that, this is going to eat a metric crapton of bandwidth, so even if you pay Google's monthly fee for better video/audio, your ISP will likely also want to charge more monthly for using so much extra data. And if you were at all interested in VR, good friggin' luck.

And on top of that, you still need a halfway decent device. Modern video codecs are beasts, they need a fair amount of processing power to decode, especially for high framerates and resolutions. My CPU, which is otherwise okayish for non-gaming tasks, can't handle decoding 1080p 60fps video in real-time. My (more modern) video card can handle decoding 1080p 60fps mp4 video (still seems to be a little stuttering occasionally, but looks fine the majority of the time), but not much higher and is completely incompatible with webm video. So it's not like you're getting out of needing to upgrade hardware as video compression/capabilities improve, either.

[Matt]

Seconding everything Gez says.

(Also lol imagine streaming the latest CoD, what was that again like 500GB) <--but then they could use that as an excuse to say some BS like "we're saving you bandwidth by streaming to you only what you need to play"... I think I'll just stick with Doom mods for all my gaming needs at this point thanks

[sirudoom]

the reason I finally got a pc is to download videos, music, games, podcasts ect. if they stop making pc's im don watching video's and everything. not supporting 5g and silicon valley.

[okbuddy]

I'm also not sure why Google feels the need to do this. They make so much money from the things that they already provide, like searching for webpages and images, and other crap that I don't feel like mentioning right now. I don't think they'll be gaining much money from this.

https://youtu.be/2xcYLVdfFro

[Graf Zahl]

Someone has to say it, but this bandwidth eating, consumer unfriendly streaming crap needs to be outlawed, it consumes so much energy that the impact of that alone should be sufficient reason to act against it. But well, it seems most gamers these days are dumb idiots who do not recognize that they are feeding a malevolent industry with their habits, so unless this fails for technical reasons (i.e. bandwidth hiccups, bad response times, etc.) I fear that many would tag along happily.

I stick to the classics where I am the one in control.