Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

"Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

threader.app

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 698 posts

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#231

Post by davidjnelson »

ArmandGrillet wrote: post #36

I want Stadia. I've read reviews yesterday and was amazed by the lack of a long term vision from the reviewers. If Google doesn't drop the ball (which is a huge if knowing the company's history), Stadia makes a lot of sense. I want to play Red Dead Redemption 2, the cheapest way to do that as I don't have a console nor an expensive computer is Stadia. And when I will want to play Cyberpunk 2077, Stadia will be the ch…

It’s cool to have options. Hope Stadia works out and a lot of people enjoy it. There’s something really fun about building a pc and overclocking it and modding the games though :-) Also, having all your mods and saves on your own backups is great too.

That being said, it’s quite perplexing that a 1080ti can’t keep a stable 60fps in 1080p on a game built on unity on ultra settings reliably. For instance, The Outer Worlds. If Stadia can crack that, they’ll make a _lot_ of money.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#232

Post by Crinus »

Bartweiss wrote: post #217
Crinus wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the lack of a long term vision How about this for a long term vision: any game you buy now will be totally lost in the future ("long term") when Google decides to shut down the service (which happens all the time) or deactivate your account (which also happens all the time) while developers will have moved on and/or closed and wont give a second thought about. In the meanwhile, while Stadia exists, any games will b…

I suppose the importance of "lost when the project closes" depends on the lifespan of the project. Every Flash/Shockwave browser game is becoming increasingly hard to play. Games for ancient Windows versions can be devilishly hard to get running, and games for PowerPC Macs are all but impossible. Emulation is flaky and incomplete for console games of all kinds. When it comes to something like a music library, "buy do…

There are people who try to archive Flash and Shockwave games and if anything, this is a good example of trying to fix something after the bad situation has already happened: the best time was when things were new. But better now than never.

PowerPC and 86k macs can be run under emulation so not everything is lost. Similar for games for DOS and ancient Windows versions, though from my personal experience 99.9% of old games will work on Windows 10 with some tweaks and/or wrappers (like dgVoodoo2, dxwnd, otvdm, etc and of course user made patches). It is extremely rare that i find an old game i cannot get to run.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#233

Post by scarface74 »

lukeschlather wrote: post #190
scarface74 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their cloud offerings are a distant third to Microsoft and Amazon and support - especially enterprise support - is legendarily bad.

As someone who uses Google Cloud, Azure, and used to work for Amazon, I am happy using GCP but find Azure to be lacking in a lot of ways. Also Google support is usually absent but when I actually get to talk to a human, they're great. Microsoft support is usually present but often seems explicitly designed to waste my time.

Since you use to work for Amazon, I would suspect that your bar for acceptable support would be a lot higher. Even on the business support plan, opening up a ticket and starting a live chat is close to immediate with AWS. I’ve used them as the “easy button” plenty of times when I probably could have figured out the issue myself but didn’t want to waste time. They are batting close to 100.

The one exception was a weird ECS error I kept getting that they couldn’t figure out. I realized later on that I hosed the permissions trying to do something cross account.

I’m sure they would have eventually figured that out.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#234

Post by skohan »

kyrra wrote: post #135
Someone1234 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've read reviews yesterday and was amazed by the lack of a long term vision from the reviewers. In my experience you should should never buy a product for what it might be one day and instead only pay for the what you're getting on day one. That way you're never disappointed/always get what you paid for. For example I recently purchased an Oculus Rift. I waited until enough games released so that I couldn't be dis…

The $129 starting bundle gives you a controller ($69), and a Chromecast Ultra ($69), which is... $138. Plus the bundle gives 3 months of "Stadia Pro" which is the 4k streaming support (plus other goodies). So the $129 is more of a starter bundle. If you just want to play on your phone or PC, it's free (outside the cost of buying games). You can plug a PS4 or XBox controller into your PC, or pair them with your phone…

Of course if you buy the XBox bundle, you pay once and you can play Red Dead Redemption 2 as long as you want in 4k. If I get Stadia and want to keep playing my game in 4k a year from now, I have to sign on to a monthly fee.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#235

Post by Crinus »

skybrian wrote: post #223
AlexandrB wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually the perfect comparison. I can still watch movies from the 1950s on various media. Good luck playing a Stadia exclusive in 2090 in any format. Treating games like a disposable commodity is short-sighted and undermines any claim the medium might have to being an art form.

This seems like a good argument against buying Stadia exclusives, but also against playing any MMO. It's a matter of degree, depending on the whims of the market and dedication of the emulator scene. Not all old movies or games are available. Not all art has survived. And apparently the old World of Warcraft is back?

It is indeed sad to see MMOs go though they are a bit special in that they are inherently about their communities. Meridian 59 - the first MMO, at least over the Internet - was opensourced a while ago yet if you connect to it now, it is a shell of its former 90s shelf since most people have moved on.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#236

Post by schnable »

poorman wrote: post #115

We had Sunrays at SUNY Oswego when I was in college. I thought they were great. I didn't have to carry a laptop around, just a little smart card that fit into my wallet. Plug it in and I had access to 120 core servers.

We had them at Case, too, but they weren't that popular.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#237

Post by sjs382 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #94
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #36

I want Stadia. I've read reviews yesterday and was amazed by the lack of a long term vision from the reviewers. If Google doesn't drop the ball (which is a huge if knowing the company's history), Stadia makes a lot of sense. I want to play Red Dead Redemption 2, the cheapest way to do that as I don't have a console nor an expensive computer is Stadia. And when I will want to play Cyberpunk 2077, Stadia will be the ch…

> I've read reviews yesterday and was amazed by the lack of a long term vision from the reviewers. In my experience you should should never buy a product for what it might be one day and instead only pay for the what you're getting on day one. That way you're never disappointed/always get what you paid for. For example I recently purchased an Oculus Rift. I waited until enough games released so that I couldn't be dis…

> Stadia costs $129 with no games.

Stadia is a service which Google says will be free in 2020.

The $129 "Stadia FE" is a controller ($79 a la carte) and a Chromecast Ultra ($69 a la carte). "Stadia FE" also comes with two games: Destiny 2 and Samurai Showdown.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#238

Post by technofiend »

edna314 wrote: post #87
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #36

I want Stadia. I've read reviews yesterday and was amazed by the lack of a long term vision from the reviewers. If Google doesn't drop the ball (which is a huge if knowing the company's history), Stadia makes a lot of sense. I want to play Red Dead Redemption 2, the cheapest way to do that as I don't have a console nor an expensive computer is Stadia. And when I will want to play Cyberpunk 2077, Stadia will be the ch…

This. Stadia is about convenience and price not about bringing a 'new' gaming experience with exclusive titles and what not. This will be the first time in over 10 years I will be able to play up to date games as it just doesn't make sense to me to buy hardware dedicated for gaming if it costs more than a chrome cast and a controller.

IMHO if you assume it'll be ephemeral but will still benefit then this is the service for you. I'm in the same place you are: I don't have the time, energy, interest or space to invest in a powerful gaming computer. Investing in a machine that'll take up space and power for the few times I can spend playing a game just doesn't make sense for me. At present I can either chose to go without or go with Stadia.

To be honest I think Nintendo has the low power, low end gaming market locked up with the Switch and people who love to game will have a mix of consoles and possibly PCs. Even so I think there's a swath of people in the middle who aren't interested in buying a console but want something more powerful than a Switch. I don't understand complaints about the cost of using Stadia since the Xbox and PS4 also require subscriptions to make the most of the devices.

What's interesting to me is if actual 5g (not marketing 5g) becomes a reality then it becomes easier to be untethered from an ISP. I doubt Google considers it much of a market but think of minimalists: van campers, small house types and people who simply want to reduce clutter.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#239

Post by kingbirdy »

smnrchrds wrote: post #176
kingbirdy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stadia doesn't prevent you from owning your own hardware, nor will it. It's just another option for people who can't afford to own hardware.

Imagine if we had this conversation 10 years ago: - I don't like streaming services, because content can disappear/the quality is lower/... - Streaming doesn't prevent you from owning your own DVDs/BDs , nor will it And now in 2019, there are so many films and tv shows only released through streaming services, and never sold on disks.

Those are products that only exist on streaming platforms, though - as far as I know, Netflix hasn't negotiated any deals to have movies go from cinemas to Netflix and not get a physical release at all. Even some of Netflix's properties have physical releases, such as Stranger Things. So there's still just as much or more physical media available as there would be without streaming platforms.

Re: "Google Stadia is not a product that exists because people want it"

#240

Post by gootdude »

developerdylan wrote: post #146
Crinus wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the lack of a long term vision How about this for a long term vision: any game you buy now will be totally lost in the future ("long term") when Google decides to shut down the service (which happens all the time) or deactivate your account (which also happens all the time) while developers will have moved on and/or closed and wont give a second thought about. In the meanwhile, while Stadia exists, any games will b…

You're making a lot of assumptions with a clear bias there. Just because you don't want this model for games, doesn't mean nobody does. I tried Stadia with Assassin's Creed in the Alpha and it was a wonderfully low bar to entry. I was able to play the new Assassin's Creed on my Macbook. There's a lot of value to that.

I also tested Project Stream, and the vision then made a lot more sense, that you were playing a game with cloud saves that could then be continued on your own hardware. This is the model Microsoft is creating with their xCloud while Stadia is forcing you to pay full price for a game for a diminished experience.
Post reply on HN