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Stadia Founder's Edition

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Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#341

Post by Godel_unicode »

msbarnett wrote: post #335
notimetorelax wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it very similar to Steam?

Not at all? You can (indeed, have to) download your purchases from Steam. Many of which are DRM free. Valve has also said they'll remove Valve DRM from the games that use it in the unlikely event they shut down. There are, in other words, obvious contingency plans. With this, the game you "own" lives and runs solely on Google's servers. If they decide to shut those servers down, you're fucked. But good thing Google i…

DRM doesn't matter for most video games, only servers matter. If steam shuts down you won't be able to play most games regardless of DRM.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#343

Post by mattlondon »

partiallypro wrote: post #244
mattlondon wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Azure has more DC and compute power around the world than Google Interesting. Do you have a source for this? Last I heard, Google's products are responsible for a significant proportion of all internet traffic e.g. in 2013 - 6 years ago - Forbes reported that it was 40% [1]. I think I heard more recently it was getting close to 50+% now but I cannot find any sources. I'd be surprised to learn that MS is handling mo…

You're confusing Google's main services vs GCP and Azure. Stradia will be running on GCP, xCloud will be running on Azure. Azure has more data centers than GCP by a large amount.

I have not read anything that suggests this is running on GCP?

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#344

Post by SirHound »

shmerl wrote: post #340
paxys wrote: post #179

The fact that you have to pay full-price for games AND rely on a cloud service makes this a nonstarter for me. The only way this could work is with a good subscription gaming model like Xbox Game Pass or PS Now. Or you give me a guarantee that I can take my games to another platform once Google inevitably shuts this down.

> The fact that you have to pay full-price for games AND rely on a cloud service makes this a nonstarter for me. I'd say it's not an issue. Why should cloud service equal subscription (renting)? Imagine a game that uses too much computational power to run on any local PC (a game using some complex AI that requires a cluster of servers for example). Cloud service is a good target for it. Why can't it be offered with "…

Because your purchase is at the mercy of Google continuing to support it. Which they have a horrific track record of.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#345

Post by headsoup »

I am surprised by comments that seem to give Google the benefit of the doubt or do not show concern just because of how other services operate.

It is up to Google to demonstrate they are capable of keeping an 'innovative' service running long-term, not customers wearing the risk (well it should be anyway).

Really the only long term products Google has provided are those dependent on their Ad behemoth. Imagine all the games full of Ads...

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#346

Post by pjc50 »

stcredzero wrote: post #248
Rebelgecko wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more concerned about Google discontinuing the service

Wasn't this the concern with Amazon Kindle books? The mega-corporation would discontinue the service, and the media one had paid for would cease to be accessible?

B&N discontinued their 1st gen "nook" devices like this, I believe.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#347

Post by headsoup »

AJ007 wrote: post #331
nightski wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traveling with Stadia would be difficult imo. They already mentioned it's going to be pretty brutal experience on 4G while 5G should be good (but is barely available at all). However every hotel WiFi I have experienced is generally abysmal. So not sure how you are planning on streaming this service seamlessly on the go.

5G, if you want to only use it outside while standing right by a 5G antenna.

And ensure you have a massive data plan to go with it...

I can imagine Pokemon Go like scenarios of people standing around 5G radios playing Stadia... Except for much less people.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#348

Post by BinaryIdiot »

stefan_ wrote: post #146
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there any tech in the controller? Yes. The controller connects directly to your game instance over WiFi. It doesn't need to go through a box first and be relayed (this can shave a significant amount of latency off controller inputs). > What "costs" $129 if there's a subscription model attached to this? For $129 you get a controller ($69), a Chromecast Ultra ($60), 3 months of Stadia Pro ($30), the full Destiny 2…

> this can shave a significant amount of latency off controller inputs How on earth would it do that? WiFi alone is a significant part of the latency here! Not to mention the huge jitter it brings. Screw in your smart cheap-ass 802.11b light bulb and watch your game feel off. No, they want this stuff to work with Chrome out of the box and so they needed to cut out the middle-man anyway, and people aren't exactly prep…

> How on earth would it do that? WiFi alone is a significant part of the latency here!

Today there is input and display lag. You send the input to the box for processing. In streaming you send the input to a box who then relays that to a server. If you can cut out the server you can reduce a bunch of latency. It won't have lower latency than a locally played game but you can make it close enough.

> Not to mention the huge jitter it brings. Screw in your smart cheap-ass 802.11b light bulb and watch your game feel off.

Your knowledge of WiFi seems to be about 8 years out of date. Not only is it really difficult to find 802.11b anything anymore (even stuff buried in a basement; seriously 802.11b devices started coming out in 1999) but this is pretty much a non issue in almost any router made in the past decade. The majority of routers (especially the better ones) use dual or tri bands to better handle interference and backwards compatibility with older standards.

If you have issues with your WiFi I'd suggest upgrading your router. Seriously, they're pretty great nowadays especially if you get a triband almost anything :)

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#349

Post by v7p1Qbt1im »

Arelius wrote: post #258
notimetorelax wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it very similar to Steam?

I think the primary worry is that A. Google has a long history of shutting down products that seems erratic. and B. the economics of this seem precarious, thus pushing on A. Where Steam has proven to be very profitable and Valve has a longer track record, and this is their primary business.

Tell me a mainstream (for Google scale) service that shut down. Offline Trips, Reader, Inbox, etc do not count. A couple of million users (at max) are just not enough. If bigger things shut down they either have a replacement or they are Google+. And no one complained when that was shut down.

Also Stadia has a subscription basis. Cloud gaming is just too important to let Microsoft win. Just like cloud in general.

Regarding the primary business argument. This is exactly what they are hedging against. Google knows ad revenue can‘t grow forever. Regulation might be coming. Cloud and stuff like this will have to take more and more of the load.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#350

Post by ThatPlayer »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #187
owaislone wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However much latency a wifi network has, making the controlled connect to another local box and that box to relay the signal through the same wifi would definitely by the latency of the wifi + T right? They are shaving off T.

I think where this gets tricky is when the display is plugged in via Ethernet.

But the Chromecast Ultra they're selling with it doesn't support USB or Bluetooth (or Ethernet), which makes it not really an option for that. The controller I believe works through Bluetooth and USB if you're using a device that has those.
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