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Stadia Founder's Edition

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Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#291

Post by nathankunicki »

djanogo wrote: post #250
nathankunicki wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can only play them offline as long as it can check in to Steam every few days. If (once) Steam is turned off, it will no longer be able to do that.

Steam is Valve's only business, if Steam shuts down that mean whole company is in trouble or about to go bankrupt or bought out. Google can shutdown Stadia because VP changed or Director got promoted to another part of business and nobody is there to sell this product internally - which means it gets shut down.

I can play NES games from 35 years ago despite the fact that Nintendo has ceased manufacturing the console and publishing the games.

As soon as Steam decides to shut down (and it will one day, be it tomorrow, or 30 years from now, those games are no longer playable).

Nothing lasts forever.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#292

Post by nathankunicki »

paxys wrote: post #277
nathankunicki wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, this is little different to buying a game on the PlayStation Store or Xbox Store. As soon as those go offline, you will no longer be able to download those games. And so you'll be at the mercy of the lifespan of the hard drive. You won't be able to copy the games to another device as it won't be able to validate ownership.

An Xbox can play all games that have already been downloaded and all physical disks indefinitely, regardless of whether you have internet or whether Microsoft's servers are up.

While correct, that was not the point made in my comment. For downloaded games, once the service has gone offline, you are at the mercy of the lifespan of the hard drive.

If I had a physical disc, I could just buy another when it goes bad.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#293

Post by nathankunicki »

zeusk wrote: post #233
nathankunicki wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can only play them offline as long as it can check in to Steam every few days. If (once) Steam is turned off, it will no longer be able to do that.

> If (once) Steam is turned off Big if, and if Steam doesn't provide an alternative method or change their DRM before turning off. Something unprecedented for Steam over 20+ years, but not so for Google.

Steam, one day, will disappear. Not tomorrow, but perhaps 100 years from now. On that day, you will no longer be able to download or even play those games for more than a few days.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#294

Post by davemp »

threeseed wrote: post #283
FridgeSeal wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go on a number of the gaming subreddit and you’ll see Stadia is being met with distaste and hesitation. Gamers are increasingly tiring of the games-as-a-service model, and this is a step even further in that direction. Personally I think this will have the same lifetime as a lot of other google products: it’ll launch, have some success, and then be killed unceremoniously a couple of years down the line.

People have said exactly the same thing about: 1) software as a service 2) streaming music 3) streaming video 4) digital games There just isn't enough people caring about physically owning something these days.

People (mostly) already don't physically own games on PC. Steam can in theory shut right down and most people's games would just be gone.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#295

Post by Aeolun »

nathankunicki wrote: post #228
zeusk wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. I can play steam games offline, I can share them with my friends/family and the most important part being - steam's platform has been reliable with top notch support since 90s while Google hasn't gotten that even in 2019.

You can only play them offline as long as it can check in to Steam every few days. If (once) Steam is turned off, it will no longer be able to do that.

The difference is that 90% if not more of Valve’s income is from Steam, so unless they feel like killing their company they won’t turn it off.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#296

Post by [deleted] »

nathankunicki wrote: post #293
zeusk wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If (once) Steam is turned off Big if, and if Steam doesn't provide an alternative method or change their DRM before turning off. Something unprecedented for Steam over 20+ years, but not so for Google.

Steam, one day, will disappear. Not tomorrow, but perhaps 100 years from now. On that day, you will no longer be able to download or even play those games for more than a few days.

[deleted]

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#297

Post by blibble »

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.

it'll probably end up covered in ads too once Google's revenues hit a downturn

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#299

Post by cannonedhamster »

judge2020 wrote: post #221
cannonedhamster wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last mile times are always going to cause lag. 5g won't be rolled out for years, then you'll need a phone to take advantage of it so that's not going to help. Last mile in US performance is really poor unless you're on full fiber which isn't offered in most of the US. Even with direct peering to the ISPs, which they don't have, this isn't likely to be a superior experience compared to a local machine. They'll have to…

> which they don't have, Can't directly refute this, but wouldn't you think GCP is peered with the vast majority of local ISPs (in America and maybe the EU)?

No. I don't not believe they've done this. They don't peer easily or often and peering with local partners is not something most people want to do, even Google. It takes trust on the part of the local service provider, which Google hasn't built as Google is often a direct competitor to their local products. Peering at the ISP level is really hard because it's all relationship management. Google couldn't manage their own fiber and built up a good deal of animosity with other networks in doing so, especially in the US.

Re: Stadia Founder's Edition

#300

Post by eckmLJE »

modwilliam wrote: post #173
eckmLJE wrote: post #18

How are they overcoming the jarring effects of input latency? Even 20-30ms in input lag would turn a lot of people off, or is this primarily for casual games where this won't matter too much?

I think it's worth trying it out before saying 20-30 ms is jarring

I know that 20-30ms is jarring because I've experimented in doing everything possible to reduce input latency while playing competitive shooters over the years, as has any serious FPS competitor. 20-30ms is highly jarring to many. Even playing SSB Ultimate over wifi on my Switch is super annoying for me to deal with.

Here's a recent HN thread on the revolution of compensating for network latency in QuakeWorld: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19915698

You can simulate ~instantaneous input with this kind of approach, but not if the input has to travel to the server and back before it's registered locally.

Most people won't care about this, but it will certainly put a ceiling on serious people (e.g. streamers) trying to play popular, competitive games on Stadia.

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