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[Ars Technica] Google should kill Stadia

Should Google kill Stadia?

  • Yes

    Votes: 159 79.5%
  • No

    Votes: 41 20.5%

  • Total voters
    200

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Well... There's history
 

Deerock71

Member
the-simpsons-stop.gif

Stadia was dead even before it launched.

It was obvious Stadia was made by people who had ZERO idea how the gaming industry or the internet infrastructure works. They were like "hey, let's do Netflix, but for games!", but these people's only knowledge of games is angry birds or candy crush. "Making games is easy. Just look at number of titles on the play store!" And then you have executives spewing nonsense like negative latency lol.
I was looking for this. I did not leave disappointed.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
Too bad hotel WIFI is a joke. Ive been to resorts in Myrtle Beach where I couldn't even stream YouTube during peak hours. But I can definitely see them doing to game streaming what they did with porn in the 90s. Pay a per day fee for unlimited game streaming. That would offset the bandwidth cost
No Lies. While testing Luna, I noticed that an awful lot of places have not upgraded their wi-fi in a fair amount of years. Mainly as there was no point and where I am in the Northeast, there is pretty rock solid LTE/5g coverage. Once the world opens back up in earnest I imagine that all the projects that had to get put to the side will begin to ramp up, including upgrading the wi-fi.


Also, you can still hardwire for cloud gaming for the smaller places. When I stayed at the Cartoon Network Hotel, which had no less than 3 tvs in every room all streaming their exclusive channels, it was very good.
 

Drew1440

Member
They really should have partnered with Steam and have it so you can play your Steam library from any device for a subscription.

Plus I'm at the moment where I want to reduce the amount of Google services I have in my life, I only use YouTube and Google Home/Assistant.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I honestly don't remember it launching. I use tons of Google products but don't ever remember seeing anything telling me to try Stadia or any free month offers or anything. Think they pretty much killed it before they launched, because it would have taken a serious commitment for it to ever have worked.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Google like MS has money to bleed So they dont need to kill It.

They might but they will probably keep it and slowly build it as cloud tech improves.

They have the money to do something like gamepass, they have money to burn to stay relevant for their future vision
 

DocEbok

Member
I wanna say no cause I really think they have the best tech. But their business model is a different story -.-
 

Fahdis

Member
Lol, I'm convinced that anyone calling Cloud gaming a joke is literally an immature individual who has a 56K Dial Up speed in 2022. Cloud Gaming is more than viable at this point with a 150-500 MB connection for the best experience. Latency depends on the closest server and AZ. When cloud gaming picks up Steam with Gamepass or GeForce Now type of models is when we will see a huge surge in gaming accessibility for middle income countries as well when their internet infrastructure gets better.

To the guys giving Laughing Emojis; you're exactly the people I'm talking about. Let's hear about your potato setups with 56K Dialup, living in ancient Medival times or startup of Colonial America.
 
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the-simpsons-stop.gif

Stadia was dead even before it launched.

It was obvious Stadia was made by people who had ZERO idea how the gaming industry or the internet infrastructure works. They were like "hey, let's do Netflix, but for games!", but these people's only knowledge of games is angry birds or candy crush. "Making games is easy. Just look at number of titles on the play store!" And then you have executives spewing nonsense like negative latency lol.
If Stadia was something like GamePass then the business model would make sense. However, the need to buy games again is a big nono. The only benefit Stadia offers now is to save the upfront console investment.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Lol, I'm convinced that anyone calling Cloud gaming a joke is literally an immature individual who has a 56K Dial Up speed in 2022. Cloud Gaming is more than viable at this point with a 150-500 MB connection for the best experience. Latency depends on the closest server and AZ. When cloud gaming picks up Steam with Gamepass or GeForce Now type of models is when we will see a huge surge in gaming accessibility for middle income countries as well when their internet infrastructure gets better.

To the guys giving Laughing Emojis; you're exactly the people I'm talking about. Let's hear about your potato setups with 56K Dialup, living in ancient Medival times or startup of Colonial America.
Metered internet/data caps are a thing.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Lol, I'm convinced that anyone calling Cloud gaming a joke is literally an immature individual who has a 56K Dial Up speed in 2022. Cloud Gaming is more than viable at this point with a 150-500 MB connection for the best experience. Latency depends on the closest server and AZ. When cloud gaming picks up Steam with Gamepass or GeForce Now type of models is when we will see a huge surge in gaming accessibility for middle income countries as well when their internet infrastructure gets better.

To the guys giving Laughing Emojis; you're exactly the people I'm talking about. Let's hear about your potato setups with 56K Dialup, living in ancient Medival times or startup of Colonial America.
A little touchy are we? I have near gig speed internet and still wont touch streaming games. I like to play my games the correct way. In full fidelity and minimal input lag. You can like crap all you want but you won't sell me on it.
 

Demigod Mac

Member
Lol, I'm convinced that anyone calling Cloud gaming a joke is literally an immature individual who has a 56K Dial Up speed in 2022. Cloud Gaming is more than viable at this point with a 150-500 MB connection for the best experience. Latency depends on the closest server and AZ. When cloud gaming picks up Steam with Gamepass or GeForce Now type of models is when we will see a huge surge in gaming accessibility for middle income countries as well when their internet infrastructure gets better.

To the guys giving Laughing Emojis; you're exactly the people I'm talking about. Let's hear about your potato setups with 56K Dialup, living in ancient Medival times or startup of Colonial America.
Rock-solid 350 Mbps connection here. Yesterday tried out GeForce Now (arguably "the best") and it was simultaneously impressive and awful.
Impressive that it's even in a playable state, but still an absolutely awful experience compared having to local hardware. Night and day difference. I demo'd Amazon Luna a while back and it was even worse.
I'm all for cloud gaming being an option on how to play - esp. in territories where owning hardware is prohibitively expensive - more power to them - but if the day comes where it is the only option to play games anymore, I'm done with the hobby.

My hope is if Stadia gets killed off it'll make all these companies think twice about cloud gaming being "the future" as in the only way to play games.
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
There is no must have to draw people to the service. It feels like a proof of concept more than a product they intend to do anything with.
 

FStubbs

Member
If you want your product to fail, hire this guy:

Phil-Harrison.jpg


Portfolio:
Stadia Launch
Xbox One Launch
PS3 Launch
Amazing that he gets chance after chance.

The PS3 launch alone - coming off of the best selling console ever - should've doomed this guy.
 
Amazing that he gets chance after chance.

The PS3 launch alone - coming off of the best selling console ever - should've doomed this guy.
After a certain leadership level it is always the same people moving around. It puzzles me how these guys keep making millions and millions as if their presence make any difference.
 

Fahdis

Member
Metered internet/data caps are a thing.

Yea, in 3rd world countries like some American States. Of course that's a big issue and hinderance for Cloud gaming to take off.

A little touchy are we? I have near gig speed internet and still wont touch streaming games. I like to play my games the correct way. In full fidelity and minimal input lag. You can like crap all you want but you won't sell me on it.

Yea, you won't touch it becaue you haven't tried it. There's no "correct" way of playing a game except for the one you've conjured up in your head. It's all about you isn't it? For some its about affordability of access. You don't get to have an opinion on something you haven't been "sold" on. Logically, you along with anyone else who shits on cloud gaming is as much a problem to modern tech not going forward.

"It should die, because it's not the right way".

Alright, so let's level with you. I buy my own games and have them on Steam and have a premium Tier to play my games at low Latency, with an OLED, what's your issue? I have 1 Gig Speed Internet and have 8-9 Ping - Max 11. My experience is literally local and this is with the 3080 Tier. I am fortunate enough, not everyone will have the same mileage. You have freaking reviews everywhere including Digital Foundry who talk highly of the service. So what was funny about my statement before? Do explain.

Rock-solid 350 Mbps connection here. Yesterday tried out GeForce Now (arguably "the best") and it was simultaneously impressive and awful.
Impressive that it's even in a playable state, but still an absolutely awful experience compared having to local hardware. Night and day difference. I demo'd Amazon Luna a while back and it was even worse.
I'm all for cloud gaming being an option on how to play - esp. in territories where owning hardware is prohibitively expensive - more power to them - but if the day comes where it is the only option to play games anymore, I'm done with the hobby.

My hope is if Stadia gets killed off it'll make all these companies think twice about cloud gaming being "the future" as in the only way to play games.

What's your ping? And you played the Free Tier. Its a bunch of 2060D's equivalent of low tier GPU's not really indicating what the service is like. You can't play on the 3080 because you have to buy it. Hardware gaming will become akin to owning expensive things, but how can you guys not see the benefits, its not like you own your games anyways, its a licence. Fuck Stadia since their model is ass and is a low tier service...

GeForce Now Only However...

- Its Cheap (Debatable - but $99 for 6 months is better than a $5K Expensive Computer or $2500 for a 3070)
- Its Accessible (Depends where you live - But definitely has 15 Million Subs around the World Now)
- No need for Downloads
- You don't lose your Hardware
- It doesn't get Viruses
- Unlimited VM's
- No Power Cost
- Serverside Updates
- Exclusive Gaming Machine
- You own Your Licenses on Your Digital Storefront
- Hardware Upgrade with New GPU's
- 4K 60 FPS on a Dildo which is my Entertainment Box

It requires:

- Great Internet
- Low Ping for Low Latency
- A Good Screen
- Controller
- Subscription

Cons:

- No Mods
- Publishers because they are Fucking Greedy
 
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drganon

Member
I see the good old revenue = net profit view is still going strong. Then you wonder why people are go in debt.
It's pretty much business 101. Doesn't matter how much revenue you make if the cost to make it surpass it. It's why pretty every Disney movie needs to make almost around half a billion in order to be profitable or break even.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
"A later report from Business Insider flagged Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda as a major wakeup call for Google, saying that the deal "scared the crap out of Google executives." Again, it seems that Google only found out about the scale and cost of the gaming industry after it hired hundreds of people and made public announcements. The Xbox division did $15 billion in revenue in 2021, so even the Bethesda purchase didn't break the bank. I wonder how those same Google executives feel about Microsoft's recent purchase of Activision Blizzard for (not a typo) $68 billion."

What monkeys did they hire?

Nearly anyone on the gaf gaming side knows that being a major player in the gaming industry costs $billions.

Its unbelievable that Google could be so ignorant.
 

Filben

Member
Holy cow. That incompetence.
"Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially."
How are we supposed to interpret this statement from a long-term planning perspective? Did Google not know how long it takes to develop a game? Did it not know that game development is expensive?
"I'm not a big gamer."
—Google CEO Sundar Pichai
 

Thabass

Member
They will kill Stadia because that's what Google does. They kill everything.

But, honestly, I think it was bone-head move to charge people for games vs. a subscription model. I would have been far more into that had they went that route.
 
"A later report from Business Insider flagged Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda as a major wakeup call for Google, saying that the deal "scared the crap out of Google executives." Again, it seems that Google only found out about the scale and cost of the gaming industry after it hired hundreds of people and made public announcements. The Xbox division did $15 billion in revenue in 2021, so even the Bethesda purchase didn't break the bank. I wonder how those same Google executives feel about Microsoft's recent purchase of Activision Blizzard for (not a typo) $68 billion."

What monkeys did they hire?

Nearly anyone on the gaf gaming side knows that being a major player in the gaming industry costs $billions.

Its unbelievable that Google could be so ignorant.

Answered your own question bro.
 
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Justin9mm

Member
Stadia was D.O.A.

The audacity to come along and charge for the games(more than on other platforms) and then charge a subscription to stream them. What a joke. Whoever in Google thought that was ever a good idea is a fucking idiot!
 
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Murdoch

Member
Stadia was D.O.A.

The audacity to come along and charge for the games(more than on other platforms) and then charge a subscription to stream them. What a joke. Whoever in Google thought that was ever a good idea is a fucking idiot!
To be fair... Games on release tend to be cheaper on Stadia than other platforms (recent example Saints Row) and there's no subscription required to play the games that you buy.


So those millions of players that buy 1 game a year (FIFA on Friday for example) don't need to shell out for an online subscription or console to get their yearly fix.

In that regards, Stadia is a fantastic fit for those people. The players that look ahead to see what's coming in the AAA space however will be sorely disappointed in the Stadia offering

Edit : As I typed that Stadia just released the preorder price for FIFA and it's £59.99. Cheaper than the console offerings without the online sub required.

There's a LOT of things wrong with stadia but I don't disagree with its model, just the gaping holes in its library.
 
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Fat Frog

I advertised for Google Stadia
So those millions of players that buy 1 game a year (FIFA on Friday for example) don't need to shell out for an online subscription or console to get their yearly fix.

In that regards, Stadia is a fantastic fit for those people. The players that look ahead to see what's coming in the AAA space however will be sorely disappointed in the Stadia offering

Edit : As I typed that Stadia just released the preorder price for FIFA and it's £59.99. Cheaper than the console offerings without the online sub required.
You nailed it. Some gamers at GAF live in another dimension...

Some people only play 2 or 3 games a year. It could be Fortnite, Madden, PUBG, Fifa...

PS5 is now 550€ ? and Fifa 23 is 10€ more expensive than the Stadia version.

Many students couldn't eat 3 meals a day last year. I don't know how long they'll last before to buy Fifa 23 with the Series S instead of the PS5...
(Stadia and cloud gaming are not famous enough as a concept for now but i guess some smart guys will search and find it could be a good deal as well).

 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I’ll never bother with it, but there’s no harm in keeping it going. Killing it just means another dead Google project.
 

Justin9mm

Member
To be fair... Games on release tend to be cheaper on Stadia than other platforms (recent example Saints Row) and there's no subscription required to play the games that you buy.


So those millions of players that buy 1 game a year (FIFA on Friday for example) don't need to shell out for an online subscription or console to get their yearly fix.

In that regards, Stadia is a fantastic fit for those people. The players that look ahead to see what's coming in the AAA space however will be sorely disappointed in the Stadia offering

Edit : As I typed that Stadia just released the preorder price for FIFA and it's £59.99. Cheaper than the console offerings without the online sub required.

There's a LOT of things wrong with stadia but I don't disagree with its model, just the gaping holes in its library.
And to get the benefits for that bought game such as 4K HDR and surround on that game, it's locked behind a pay wall subscription. On many occasions games on Stadia have been more expensive than physical in store copy especially when they are on sale.

Not sure what you're smoking, not many ppl will agree with you. It's model is why it's failing.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
I voted no. People purchased games on Stadia and they should be able to continue to play games they purchased. Unless, of course, Google is willing to refund those purchases. We know that will never happen though. Probably a clause buried in the terms and conditions.
 

CeeJay

Member
I voted no. People purchased games on Stadia and they should be able to continue to play games they purchased. Unless, of course, Google is willing to refund those purchases. We know that will never happen though. Probably a clause buried in the terms and conditions.
If any of those people cared to investigate a bit about Stadia before spending the cash they would have realised it was not going to be without risk. Anyone who went in knowing full well what they were letting themselves in for should just put it down to experience and move on. If people choose to buy digital games on a streaming only platform they should be prepared to lose access to play them and see their purchase as totally dispensable. If you want a guaranteed way to continue playing a game then there are traditional methods that have existed since the dawn of computer games themselves. if you want to have the excitement of being an early adopter of brand new tech then you should know what you are letting yourself in for and be prepared for your horse to be taken out back and shot.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
If any of those people cared to investigate a bit about Stadia before spending the cash they would have realised it was not going to be without risk. Anyone who went in knowing full well what they were letting themselves in for should just put it down to experience and move on. If people choose to buy digital games on a streaming only platform they should be prepared to lose access to play them and see their purchase as totally dispensable. If you want a guaranteed way to continue playing a game then there are traditional methods that have existed since the dawn of computer games themselves. if you want to have the excitement of being an early adopter of brand new tech then you should know what you are letting yourself in for and be prepared for your horse to be taken out back and shot.

I get what you are saying, but Google still has some responsibility to their customers. If they decide that Stadia will eventually go away then they need to stop selling games and make an announcement and give their existing customers a good deal of time to play their games before shutting the service down. That's at the very least. For those who have recently paid for a game and not played it, they should get full refunds. Google can afford a bit of the burden here.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I get what you are saying, but Google still has some responsibility to their customers. If they decide that Stadia will eventually go away then they need to stop selling games and make an announcement and give their existing customers a good deal of time to play their games before shutting the service down. That's at the very least. For those who have recently paid for a game and not played it, they should get full refunds. Google can afford a bit of the burden here.
They'll give them some Google Play store vouchers and call it a day, lol.
 
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