Google Stadia instead of next gen console??

[gangzoom]

pquinn said:

£8.99/month really doesn't cover many hours of game capable GPU accelerated cloud time, especially if Google then have to pay for the games and all the rest on top.

I've really been enjoying Stadia, the tech is amazing, who would have thought I could play Destiny 2 on my S9?? Its not some phone specific version either, its the full blown game with expansion pack!!

However I cannot see how Google is making money at £8.99/month. I can only imagine the hardware and software cost involved in delivering this tech.

I've paid £0 so far, and have not even scratched the surface of Destiny 2 (only reached power level of 790 so far), Grid 2 is keeping me busy too as well as all the other 'free' bundled titles.

When Cyberpunk comes out on Stadia I may get that, but if I purchase it I can stop paying the £8.99/month and still get access to it. So for a similar cost as a console title, Google is essentially providing me with the hardware to run it for free!!!

Really be interesting to see how it goes, but streaming tech for games is the future. Especially when currently its £0 to try for a month, if nothing else its a way to play GRID for free - Forza is a better game .

Minimal cost and zero effort to access games, whats not to like? How Google can make a profit from this tech is a different matter. But than again I've never paid a £0 to Spotify either and its still going.

Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 9th July 05:17

[gangzoom]

Got 10 days left on the free tiral, have cancelled 'pro' subscription, enjoyed Destiny 2 and Grid + various 'free' games but they aren't for me.......

......however I did use the £10 off voucher to buy F1 2020. Haven't played a F1 game since 2010, Grid was OK but F1 2020 is fab. I went from deciding to buy it to going around Singapore in the rain in about 60 seconds, all whilst not having to leave the kitchen table .

Gaming stuff aside no idea how these F1 drivers actually do this stuff in real life in the wet!!

[gangzoom]

Have now 'bought' Destiny 2 so I can keep playing without paying the Pro monthly subscription, Assassin Creed down to £18 on a sale at the moment, but am having too much fun with F1 2020, so I'll just get CyberPunk 2077 when its out. Going to put the Xbox on sale this weekend, will use the money to get a Stadia controller and Google streaming thingy so I can run games on the TV is I wish.

Loving Stadia. For me it work really well .

[gangzoom]

BaronVonVaderham said:

I work in the gaming industry, and stadia is seen as the floppiest flop in all flopdom.

Google have been wasting their time targeting current gamers, its people like me they should have/be targeting.

I use to play loads of games, but when you have a family/busy job time becomes precious, far too precious to waste on gaming hardware or been tied to even a single device.....Have you tried to ask your father in law to go and use the other TV when they come and visit so you can play Xbox .

But with Stadia all of a sudden am putting in practice laps around Monaco between Teams calls, or trying to clear a lost sector whilst still at the kitchen table. The fact games takes literally seconds to load in the tab next to BBC news makes them so accessible.

I've spend more on games in Stadia in the last month than I've done in 2 years with my Xbox. I'll be buying Cyberpunk for full rrp when it comes out on Stadia, yes it'll be cheaper on a PC/Console but if I never get the chance to play it than its wasted money, and no one wants to waste money.

Google needs to go after us older ex gamers, thats where their market (and revenue) is. For some those of paying £1000/month on nursery/school fees, than the mortgage + bills, £50 on a Staida game we can just play pretty much anywhere with WiFi is very very easy to justify, much more so than spending time/money on a dedicated gaming system.

Google may have developed the tech to tap into an entirely new gaming market, but am not sure they have realised it.

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 28th July 06:19

[gangzoom]

George Smiley said:

I wonder if it works through his Betamax?

So I was all ready to buy a Chrome cast exteme and Stadia controller than I remeber that old fashioned thing called a HDMI port, not only does it make pictures appear even the sound works .

So one device will now literally do everything, work, play, chilling. with no worries at all about future hardware, updates, or even local hard drive storage. Total hardware costs to cover any future gaming needs is now £0.

How anyone cannot think this is the future I really struggle to understand.

[gangzoom]

Gosh some of you guys really have some hatred issues going on!!

Anyways changed the 5G setting on my router to only support 5G and 80MHZ, getting a rock solid connection for Stadia now, same experience as wired ethernet.

Loving getting laps in on F1 2020 - fantastic game, Stadia is letting me enjoy gaming again which at the end of the day is what's its about. Really happy with not having to worry about gaming hardware going into the future, which means more time spent playing games .

[gangzoom]

BaronVonVaderham said:

OP, are you hoping to drum up some new users so that you have someone to play multiplayer with?

I have to be honest and say I just haven't tried multiplayer with Destiny 2 since completing a Quest (or what ever its called), I 'bought' Destiny 2 because I thought I might want to play some FPS multiplayer without having to pay for the monthly subscription, but F1 2020 is so good I haven't even launched Destiny 2 since getting F1. I have read apparent'y Destiny 2 mutliplayer will become cross plarform of Stadia at some point.

Cross play is clearly the way to go interms of having so many multi systems now, but for me right now it doesn't bother me.

I have to say making the 5G WiFi connection on my router 5G only has made a massive difference to streaming stability, zero slow downs at now even when the rest of the family have YouTube/Netflix running. How Google have managed this is beyond me, when it still some times takes me a good 30 seconds to launch/login to my work VPN setups or even network drives, yet Google can stream games like F1 2020 with no noticeable lag to me and it launches almost a quickly as the BBC website takes to load.

Been able to play games like F1 2020 with my work laptop is just insane, and I love it .

[gangzoom]

TheDrBrian said:

Tech Jesus has just done an update to their previous Stadia coverage and its at best 2 to 3 times more laggy than running it on your local hardware.

And here is someone on YouTube lapping quicker on Stadia than a PC with F1 2020, who knows maybe input lag isn't important in a game like F1 2020 .

https://youtu.be/rXsw_VH8zzk

Most you guys clearly don't like Stadia but am loving it. I have no interest at all now in new hardware for gaming, Stadia work fantastically for my needs. Had 20 minutes free last night for some F1 2020, wheel to wheel stuff at Singapore, great stuff, bought back great memories of been at the actual race .

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 4th August 08:20

[gangzoom]

TheDrBrian said:

Good video that. He admits at 5:35 that stadia is over twice as laggy as running it on a local pc.

Yet he laps quicker on Stadia, its all well and good going nuts for ms of lag, back in the day of UT/Quake 3 a good player still got head shots with 200ms of lag.

I really cannot find any lag effecting game play on F1 2020. Going for a night time drive in a pair of McLarens around Singapore, why not .

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 4th August 22:56

[gangzoom]

vonuber said:

It's a mid level gaming PC.

And there is the beauty of Stadia. I paid for F1 2020 because I ENJOY playing it, and I can play it on device that can run Chrome with a decent internet connection.

When Cyberpunk comes on Stadia I'll be buying it too, again with no worries about hardware/FPS/storage etc.

The availability of games on Stadia is what will determine if it works in future. Come next year this time I would fully expect Stadia to be offering games that many PCs right now will struggle to run, whilst my 2013 MacBook Pro will run them fine with Stadia.

The haters might be right, Google might kill Staida, but the tech works and works really well. Gaming hardware is now redundant for me, at this rate I'll be happy not getting a new laptop for a long while and will certainly never buy another console .

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 5th August 08:32

[gangzoom]

vonuber said:

Sure, and without the benefits of owning one, and being tied to one streaming service which is at the whim of a corporation renowned for closing things.

You sound like one of my relatives to refuses to have a G-mail account because they think Google is spying on them all the time, and has doesn't use any cloud services for the same reason, they still use an USB hard drive for photoback ups.

I use to love owning hardware/physical stuff, but actually when cloud services can pretty much do anything these days your just wasting time with faffing with hardware/backups/software updates when that time could be used to play games/work/take photos. Time the most valuable asset we all have, and any service that frees up Time is worth its weight in gold.

[gangzoom]

You don't need the 'pro' version unless you want 4K streaming in which case I would suggest a hardwired connection, 1080P you need a good WiFi setup ideally 5G dedicated channel, 720P anything is fine even with kids watching Netflix and wife doing video call at the same time.

You do get access to 'free' games with Pro but the only one I really found enjoyable was Destiny 2, so instead of paying £8.99/month I just bought if for £25 including the last few expansion packs - not even 1/5 of the way through it currently.

The other games you 'buy' you can continue to play at 1080P without the Pro subscription, which is why I bought F1 2020. There are also 'sales' events, recent Assassins Creed Odyssey was £18, latest Ghost Recon was £18 and current the latest Doom (which I read is a 50gig install on normal devices!!) is £25.

I haven't bought either because I don't have enough time to play so many games, by time am done with single player in Destiny 2 and F1 2020 Cyberpunk should be out and I'll just buy that.

Any PC within an HDMI port can turn your TV into a Stadia console if that's what your after, no need to buy the Chrome cast or controller, am using my Xbox controller with my laptop. If you do want to play it on a 55inch+ OLED in 4K than Pro is worth while, but for me that than makes it like my current Xbox been tied to one screen.

On a different note I read Xcloud will become part of Xbox Games pass, so what if Microsoft let Xbox cloud run on the current Xbox, and than you try and access a X series 'only' game on it......The current hardware will deal with it no issues, as my 2013 laptop shows, so if you can than 'play' X series only games on the current Xbox One via Xcloud why would you go and buy a X series machine ???

Ofcourse Microsoft wouldn't let the above situation happen, even though technically it'll be 100% possible, but am sure when looking into the future of how hardware develops it must be on the road map regarding revenue/cost/profit. If its games which generate income/revenue and the like of Sony/Microsoft can continue to push out great games people are willing to buy, why than bother with all the R&D costs of new hardware??

Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 6th August 07:14

[gangzoom]

hotchy said:

They can barely manage to keep warzone from lagging with the 75m people who have the game. Imagine 75m people all wanting to stream a high powered game and no lag? Personally it's a good idea, but I just cant see it having the power to do so yet.

I personally just don't get the lag issue with Stadia, as I've said before maybe because the last time I played competitive multipler FPS in anger was UT2000/Quake 3, when anything under 100ms lag was AMAZING, and most of us was running around 150-170ms - that was just the ping lag not counting for other stuff!!. Getting mutlikill head shots back than took as much skill as it does now.

Its your internet connection which is stressed far more interms of growth/demand if everyone starts game streaming. Can you tell day last week I managed to find some gaming time afterwork . Am currently on a unlimited uncapped board band package, but since getting Stadia my daily usage can ben 5-10 times higher than previous, at some point the network providers are going to start capping data again, and probably sell a 'gaming' package for those who are using this amount of data.

Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 6th August 07:24

[gangzoom]

Oakey said:

Are you aware that Sony was doing this already way before Google and MS with PlayStation Now? Five years ago they had a PlayStation Now app for Smart TV's but they discontinued it.

Interesting, just looked up the reviews

'Not only do games take 30 to 45 seconds to load up, but any hiccup in the connection completely derails gameplay.'

Loading up F1 2020 takes seconds on Stadia, and on a dedicated 5G WiFi setup did 15 laps of Shanghai GP without a single slow down.

The odd occasional when the connection at home goes down, when you reconnect you pick up exactly where you left off.

The review also says PS Now uses 10Mb/second connections, I don't think Stadia will even start at those speeds, 20Mb/second for 720P, 30Mb/second for 1080P, and 30Mb/second+ over hardwire for 4k.

Looks like the tech PS Now is/was trying to push was too early too soon, but it doesn't look like Sony are giving up on it which is good. Xcloud will be interesting and I'll probably try it as I have a Xbox one S.

Decent Internet connection is looking like the most important part of a good gaming experience for me going fowards.

Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 6th August 12:09

[gangzoom]

nmd87 said:

Am I right in thinking all I'd need would be:
- signing up to stadia and opening it in a web browser
- plugging in a bluetooth dongle for my PC in order to connect the PS4 controller

That's what I do, you even don't need to sign in every-time as it remembers your account.

My Xbox One controller works without needing a dongle.

I paid £45 for F1 2020, have cancelled 'Pro' subscription and its working really well.

[gangzoom]

untakenname said:

Gangzoom you sound like a teenage fanboy, you need to grow up as you're backing the losing horse and it's doing you no favours.

Trust me I wish I had the time free now I did as a teenager.

I don't care about backing anyone, I've got a XboX one, I've tired GamePass when there was a free trial, I've even got some games for my Mac I bought via the App stores ages ago.

For my situation free time is precious, and Stadia lets me at least get some chance to play games, even with how easy/accessible Stadia makes things I've barely done 6 races on F1 2020 since 'buying' it weeks ago. If Stadia folds I've 'lost' £45 on F1 2020, I've spent far more than that on my XboX one which I cannot even remember the last time I turned it on!!

Off to work now, so I really do wish what you say ways ture, but sadly am very much a 'grown up' these days .

[gangzoom]

nmd87 said:

Looks like the Microsoft cloud gaming service for Android is launching today. Anyone planning to give it a go? At a glance it looks better value than Stadia. £11 a month but 150 games included.

If you play loads of games these services all look great. I've been playing F1 2020 on Stadia for a few months now and still only half way through my first season of MyTeam.

I cancelled my Stadia Pro subscription after the 'free' trial, but paid £45 for F1 2020, I suspect even by Christmas I wouldn't have gone much past season 2. I 'bought' Destiny as well for £20 but actually don't play it, as a single quest can take 1hr+ to do and I simply don't have that much free time in the day uninterrupted for gaming, where as with F1 2020 I can put in 20 minutes of practice laps here and there, and do a 15 lap race in 30 minutes.

Currently Stadia are doing 'sales' of Assassins Creed for £15 for Pro members and £25 for none, not that much more expensive than a disc version, but am not buying them purely because of lack of time to play them .

However all these services are great, access to loads of games, play on what ever hardware you want, I wish I had access to them 10 years ago when my free time was my own!!

[gangzoom]

I'm still enjoying Stadia, looking at all the stuff on external hard drives for the new Xbox just really isn't my thing.

My main problem is still actually finding time to play games, only 2/3 of the way through my first F1 season, game play is fab though, just wish I had more time free for games.



https://youtu.be/y4X8SxuwR6s

[gangzoom]

Jim on the hill said:

If you were only playing 2-3 games or even 10 games you wouldn't have to worry about external hard drives on the new consoles.

Even less reason for me to invest in new hardware. I paid £35 for F1 2020 back in June/July and play it on my 2013 MBP which I use for work when I get time.

I do like Hitman which is one of few games I bought for my Xbox one, so will probably get that in the next 6 month, maybe Cyberpunk but constantly delays isn't a good sign.

How much is the new Xbox and games? With Stadia I just pay for the games, and it than all just works on my laptop with no more hardware/software headache beyond launching Chrome.

Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 12th November 05:44

[gangzoom]

Stevil said:

I'll be surprised if you ever finish that season at this rate, not because you won't have time, but because I can see them abandoning the idea before too long.

That would be shame because the tech is amazing, and for me work well.

Just for fun I've tried to load it up at work (well I've been here since 630am so earned a 5 minute rest)….It loads! Not going to try to play it though, am not been played to play games at work.....so back to work for me .