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When will Google shut down Stadia?

stadiacountdown.com

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Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern multiplayer games already do the "world model" calculations on the server, with clients simply rendering the little data they have.

Hmm, I'm wondering if rendering on the server would make things a bit harder for bots? It seems hard to figure out exactly what to send without at least doing visibility calculations and clipping?

I have heard that the latest Counter Strike servers do player occlusion calculations on the server so that cheaters can't see through walls. If you can't see an enemy, than the server won't even send your client their position.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#252
post #121

Cloud gaming is solution looking for a problem. It's not customer demand driven. Nobody want's cloud gaming (at least not yet). They haven't shown anything compelling why this would be a game changer for end users. The games are not more fun or unique than on any other platforms. Any of the cloud arguments also hold for consoles or PCs on internet connected games. I think the site may be a bit optimistic.

I want it, but I want the Netflix model. What I don't want is to buy games fullprice on their platform. Let me pay 10 bucks a month for a rich gaming catalog that I can play on anything from Mac, to phone to tablet and I'm going to use it.

I think it will take some time for an effective business model to evolve that works for games. Games don't exactly follow the lump-sum, zero maintenance model of movies, but they also don't work well with the SaaS treadmill either.

Some games lock players in and absorb their time continuously (e.g. Overwatch, PUBG, WoW, etc), while others package a digestible block of content that can be consumed in 10, 20, 50 hours, and then it's done. Subscription payouts based on proportional screen time would drastically favor the former over the latter, while lump-sum compensation flips the tables since it doesn't consider ongoing server and infrastructure costs needed to make multiplayer work.

I think this "Buy your games, and subscribe to them too" model that Stadia is using is how they're trying to split that baby, but given that nearly every other service is either subscription or one-time purchase, I have a hard time seeing it stick around long-term. Then again, some console systems also function that way, so I might be wrong.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#253
post #88

A good model will be to start working on a new startup with a competing product as soon as google launches something. In couple of years when they shut down, provide migration paths. Swim in $$$.

That only works for products people actually like. I can think of maybe one product where this was a good model.

Google Reader?

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#254
To be frank, I don't want and don't think Google Stadia will go down.

I don't want it to go down because, I'm sure Google will lobby with ISPs to improve their latency and ISPs in many countries have long hidden their pathetic latency behind bandwidth/data numbers.

I don't think it will go down, because once latency issue is fixed there's no debilitating issue with stadia and western reviewers who are bearish about Stadia are forgetting how big mobile gaming is in Asia. Many of those mobile gamers haven't owned a console let alone a computer and Stadia in their cheap android mobile would be first console quality game they experience.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#255
In the source they cite (https://gcemetery.co/), do they consider only products that have died? Or do they track all products that have started? (hopefully they have right censoring, otherwise it seems they're underestimating the average lifespan).

I'm having a hard time finding the data in tabular format.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#256
post #121

Cloud gaming is solution looking for a problem. It's not customer demand driven. Nobody want's cloud gaming (at least not yet). They haven't shown anything compelling why this would be a game changer for end users. The games are not more fun or unique than on any other platforms. Any of the cloud arguments also hold for consoles or PCs on internet connected games. I think the site may be a bit optimistic.

> They haven't shown anything compelling why this would be a game changer for end users.

I don't get this view. They really did show compelling, game-changing features for the end-user, if you watched their talks and demos. They showed lots of potentially game-changing features for developers too, which impact the products, which impact the users.

Most of it is vaporware at this point though, and what we have in Stadia today is basically an early MVP.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#257
There's an easy product fix for this. Offer every game purchase with the option for a one-time key conversion, ideally managed through the game publisher. In the event of a Stadia shutdown you could easily port your purchase over to another single platform of your choice. This stragegy de-risks the platform and would go a long way toward alleviating consumer fears.

We saw similar strategies around the launch of Steam. Sure you're just buying a download code, but if you send us $5 for postage we'll mail you a physical disc to go with it. Same concept.

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google is trying something really innovative This kind of thing has been around for nearly 10 years.

Where? Who else is doing this type of cloud gaming?

Onlive (deceased).

Microsoft (xCloud). Free until it’s stable.

Nvidia (GeForce NOW). Free until it’s stable.

Sony (PlayStation Now).

.. Seriously dude where’ve you been?

Re: When will Google shut down Stadia?

#260
The end goal for google with this tech isn't stadia, it's something completely new. It's loading and playing a game as easily as you load and watch a youtube video right now.

Stadia's just the beta test to get the hardware running, tested and get developers familiar with the backend platform they need to develop for/port too.

Video games are one of the few really massive and lucrative markets which Google can move into and make a dent on their balance sheets.

So yeah Stadia will probably get canned at some point, but the technology will probably go onto bigger and better things.

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