Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service • Hacker News Board

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#221

Post by jsgo » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

ssully wrote: post #135

jsgo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game Pass works because you're essentially temporarily unlocking a library of games to be downloaded to your device. It really isn't an indicator they're moving in the same direction as Stadia. It is kind of another beast altogether for Google, Shadow, Microsoft (xCloud), etc. to dedicate actual hardware for your usage. Shadow and others like it are essentially remote VM w/ GPU that you rent by the hour. Stadia, xClo…

It's not just game pass though. Microsoft has flat out said they are moving towards streaming. They are also doing things like making Xbox live a service on the Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. Game Pass the way it is today is just an indicator into how things will be. Microsoft has made clear that they want Xbox to be a platform independent of the physical box they sell to people. They are 100% going in the directi…

They have announced xCloud, yes, but have they announced the business model/pricing? So far, pretty sure the answer is no. So it may be a subscription, but it may also end up being akin to renting a VM with GPU in Azure. Time will tell.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#222

Post by eikenberry » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #192

eikenberry wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it tied to only 1 screen? You can use Steam or Nvidia Shield to stream to just about any screen or tablet in the house and it works great. My gaming system is headless and I play all my games streaming to one system or another.

Steam and Nvidia don't have the stellar 11 9s kind of reputation Google has. Also, you have to actually buy those games first, so your library is a tiny fraction of what Stadia offers.

True... but they were talking about how their collection was limited to their single gaming system at home which wasn't true. They have options for that. But both of those are technologies to stream your own games, they do nothing to provide the games themselves. So it really is apples/oranges as a general topic.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#223

Post by _bxg1 » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:15 PM UTC

shereadsthenews wrote: post #167

_bxg1 wrote: post #92

I'm skeptical they'll be able to overcome the latency problem. At some point there's a hard cap that only infrastructure can help with - not software - and Google's already given up on rolling out their own infrastructure.

Google has more of "their own infrastructure" than any ISP you could name or any of the transit networks that people think of as "tier 1".

But it's not an ISP. Presumably this gaming service's primary market isn't Google's own data center employees.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#224

Post by chipperyman573 » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

snaky wrote: post #102

b_tterc_p wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point being? People can still buy DVDs and yet the movie and tv industry is being completely changed by Netflix.

Three million people still use Netflix to rent DVDs.

In 2015 there were still 2.1 million AOL dialup subscribers. Many people probably just don't realize they're still subscribed.

https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#225

Post by hex12648430 » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

vbernat wrote: post #189

hex12648430 wrote: post #162

I really hope the latency we've seen in the live demo was due to the venue's poor internet connection because otherwise this will make some games unplayable. They mentioned that Doom Eternal will be available and that it would be a good benchmark for the service's latency but I'm waiting to see some independent reviews to believe it. Also I don't really understand who's the target audience for this, I doubt people wh…

The PS4 is running on FreeBSD and yet, this doesn't seem to have change anything for FreeBSD gaming.

Well AMD will have to keep writing good Linux drivers which will most likely benefit everyone with an AMD card. They're also partnered with Unity and Epic Games which means these engines will make it easier to target Linux as the release platform and maybe port some DX-only features over to Vulkan.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#226

Post by kllrnohj » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

puzzle wrote: post #214

kllrnohj wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The streaming services of gaming is coming. It's already failed multiple times. OnLive tried & failed. Nvidia's has been in beta for years. Sony has one. Everyone in this area has tried this. Nobody has seen what could be described as "success", and the cost models so far have been ludicrous. Turns out renting Xeons and Radeon MI Instincts in a professionally staffed, maintained datacenter is way, way more expensiv…

Yeah, if you know where to look, they left clues about using MI25 hardware. (I haven't been an employee for years, this all unfolded afterwards and, ironically, it is just one search away.) I'm sure they got bulk/promotional pricing from AMD, plus they're very good at both running hardware with low overhead and packing it efficiently.

> plus they're very good at both running hardware with low overhead and packing it efficiently.

You can't really pack the hardware here since it's latency sensitive. It's straight dedicated resources to an array of VMs. Dedicated CPU cache, even, hence the odd 9.5MB L2+L3 number.

Bulk pricing only gets you so far here. You're still talking gear that's categorically way more expensive than similar performance consumer parts. Not to mention all the other costs in play - data center, power, IT staff, etc...

Making this price-competitive is a big problem

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#227

Post by _bxg1 » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

jhall1468 wrote: post #205

_bxg1 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Fiber hadn't truly failed, it just turned out to require more work than they'd hoped, so they just said "never mind" to the cities they'd led along with big promises: https://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-... They lack the ability to commit to a space and cultivate it, casually changing course on a whim and leaving masses of people spinning in their wake. Just look at how they've managed…

> They lack the ability to commit to a space and cultivate it That's because states, entrenched providers and in some cases local governments made every inch of work cost a mile of time. The cost was making Fiber a non-starter... ISP's benefited from nationwide networks largely funded by governments, then used their monopoly influence to prevent any competition, and "hired" state governments to enforce their monopoli…

I don't deny that ISP's make it far harder than it needs to be. They make it impossible for small upstarts. But Google, of all companies, had plenty of resources to make it happen if they really wanted to.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#228

Post by petra » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

holoduke wrote: post #219

The reason why these kind of initiatives fail is because they do not solve a real problem or issue. The average Joe doesn't need another subscription just to play some games. Having a console where you buy games is more than enough. I also silently hope that Google will fail hard with this one. Since they are the worst publisher on earth with absolutely no compassion towards its developers relationships.

It does solve some problems for game developers, like with style transfer. And gamers go where the content is.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#229

Post by zarriak » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

I really don't understand why people here aren't talking about the real underlying principle of this service. Google has captured the education and cheap laptop space with chromebooks. This is the logical extension of that software. Sure they will eventually combine chromeos and android but this is one more step in the direction of everything happening inside of your web browser.

The entire reason this is happening is because Google has successfully captured what once was the holy grail of markets, education, and is doing things like this to keep people on chromebooks.

ChromeOS could be as important than Android. Especially with the Windows 7 extended life support coming up, Google has less than 4 years to convince people to transfer to their platform instead of Windows 10. I know it seems heretical to imply that it will happen but I think this is a good example that Google considers it not only a real possibility but something that they might actually have a good chance of being able to pull off.

The most important thing to realize is that they are focusing on gamers as a trial, the people who are price sensitive and who have to move first off of Windows 7 since they can't pay for extended support even if they wanted it. They can then continue this into the workplace. This is a brilliant move by Google.

Re: Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service

#230

Post by diminoten » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

eikenberry wrote: post #222

diminoten wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam and Nvidia don't have the stellar 11 9s kind of reputation Google has. Also, you have to actually buy those games first, so your library is a tiny fraction of what Stadia offers.

True... but they were talking about how their collection was limited to their single gaming system at home which wasn't true. They have options for that. But both of those are technologies to stream your own games, they do nothing to provide the games themselves. So it really is apples/oranges as a general topic.

Yeah but do you really think you're gonna be like, "You could hand build YouTube at home!" and anyone is going to be like, "Oh okay, WTF Google why even try?"