Google Stadia Promises More Than 120 Games in 2020, Including 10 Exclusives (theverge.com) 45
Google said today that it's on track to bring more than 120 games to its cloud gaming service Stadia in 2020 and is planning to offer more than 10 Stadia-exclusive games for the first half of the year. From a report: That would be a pretty massive jump from the 26 games and one exclusive that are currently available, and all in a little more than a year after the service's launch, if those projections hold true. Previously, Google had only explicitly confirmed four games for 2020, so this news was much needed to let early adopters know there are a lot more games on the way. Google also announced other updates rolling out to Stadia over the next three months, including 4K gaming on the web, support for more Android phones (it's currently only available on Google's Pixels), wireless gameplay on the web through the Stadia controller (you currently have to plug in a cable), and "further [Google] Assistant functionality" when playing Stadia through a browser. We're asking Google for more details -- and we're particularly curious whether any of the new exclusive games are the kind that are only possible with the power of the cloud. The company said in October that it's building out a few first-party studios to eventually make that a reality.
And... (Score:5, Insightful)
And they plan on phasing out the service in 2021, leaving all customers dumb enough to have purchased games on the service in the lurch... /s
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no more exclusive games on any system but pc! (Score:2)
no more exclusive games on any system but pc!
Wow more than 120 games! (121 or 122 games) (Score:1)
I wonder how many games are available on Steam, XBLive or PSN?
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They may have added 7500 some recent year / last / whatever. But it's hardly quality all through. But more of course.
Then again the difference is PC gaming requires a PC preferably one good for gaming whereas this doesn't.
Original PS4 is like a 2014 PC (Score:2)
PC gaming requires a PC preferably one good for gaming
Intel integrated graphics have been good enough for basic gaming since roughly 2012 when Ivy Bridge was released. Ivy Bridge could run Skyrim at acceptable resolution and frame rate, for instance. Modern AAA games require modern AAA solutions, but games for the current consoles (Xbox One and PlayStation 4) are designed to run on hardware comparable to AMD kit from 2013-2014 (Athlon 5150 and Radeon
R7 265). AMD hardware since then has only become faster.
Indie games are also PC-exclusive more often than AAA ga
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There's 30k+ games on Steam now, everything from the most recent AAA to games from 40 years ago. As for Xbox and PSN? Around about 1k each.
It doesn't matter (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't care how many games they promise. This service is like the worst of all possible worlds: subscription fees AND purchasing individual games, plus bandwidth hogging, latency inducing streaming, all wrapped up in a cloud-based service that guarantees you'll have nothing to show for your "purchases" when it inevitably closes down in a few years. I'm still mind-boggled that anyone has actually signed up for this.
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It is highly likely that customers have to purchase games at present because Google haven't been able to negotiate with game publishers. I expect in future it will be a subscription service with no purchase necessary. If not, then it will surely fail for the reasons you say.
OnLive had the same hurdle, which they weren't able to overcome. Google obviously have a lot more clout when it comes to such negotiations.
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Yep, that may have been the original plan. Streaming games on-demand makes sense as a rental model, like Netflix for gaming, in which it's clear you're just renting access. But I just can't see the attraction when you can buy and download the games and play them latency-free on a local console, free for as long as you own the hardware. And it's not as though Multi-GB-sized downloads are all that onerous with the bandwidth most folks have, so the only real attraction would presumably be not having to buy
Re: It doesn't matter (Score:1)
Competitive player (Score:2)
Its the latency thats the biggest problem.
Don't worry. Competitive player, professionnal streamer, e-sport player (basically anyone playing at a level where a 10ms lag is CRITICAL!!!!(*) ), and big videogame nerds (who just love big iron) are still going to buy and build big giant overpowered custom battle stations.
Stadia isn't for that crowd.
Stadia is for the crowd of Joe 6pack who won't even notice that a whole frame was skipped and just want to have a laugh at some game, without needing to fork out the money for high range gaming PC for AAA game
Rentals (Score:2)
But I just can't see the attraction
...let me point the answer to you....
when you can buy and download the games and play them latency-free on a local console, free for as long as you own the hardware.
Yup that's it...
so the only real attraction would presumably be not having to buy a console or gaming-spec PC.
...spot on.
As modern Joe 6-pack's everyday computing platform (outside of work) shifts to mobile internet machine (smartphone and tablets), the existence of a gaming spec PC at home (or a non-work issued gaming-spec laptop where games can trivially be installed) is going to dwindle.
Causal games on mobile are a thing, yes. AAA-titles a lot less common.
The whole purpose of Stadia is playing AAA PC games without needing to buy and maintain said PC.
Just like
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The top quality ads will make all that feel better.
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Bad for gamers and developers. (Score:2)
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Re: Bad for gamers and developers. (Score:3)
Terrible service (Score:5, Informative)
The service thus far is terrible. A friend brought his Stadia stuff over to test at my place. I have symmetrical gigabit fiber internet with ~3ms latency to Google's servers. Game response time was absolutely terrible (200+ ms input latency), and it would never let us actually play in 4k despite his pro account.
nVidia's service an entire year ago that came free with the nVidia Shield by contrast, I was able to play Overwatch without issue. On top of that, nVidia's service gives you a basic Windows desktop with Steam and Battle.net access, so the library is literally thousands of games compared to next to nothing on Stadia.
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This seems odd, I have a modest internet connection (25mbit down, 8mbit up, my ping to the stadia server was around 25-30ms) and I ran the beta very well from my Chromecast of all things.
Of course I was only running 1080p, not 4k. But it ran smooth and looked as good as the game did on my gaming rig with a GTX 980TI, which I was able to compare as they gave us a free copy after the beta was over.
There were occasional hiccups when my AC would kick on (screen would get visual artifacting for 1-2 seconds), but
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Meant to say Chromebook, not Chromecast.
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Absolutely true. In my particular case, my building was pre-wired with wifi routers in every unit and turned on. So there is a LOT of wireless congestion. However, I'm aware of this, and run everything hardlined ethernet (including my testing of Stadia). I'm in the Seattle area, which you would think would be one of the absolute best places to try Stadia, being home to the majority of the North American video game industry (and again, 3ms latency to Google's regional data centers!) But it just fell terribly
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That bad? The mind boggles.
New avenue for social justice (Score:2, Insightful)
Where all content is censored for wrongthink, and players are randomly banned from their accounts without warning for violating vague and ever changing "community guidelines" centered around "hate speech" du jour.
No thanks. I'll stick to Steam, and anticipate the day when silicon valley wokescolds go broke.
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The middle ground is where people are accustomed to being treated like chattel by vertical monopolies like Google, and their apathy is so great they can't even be bothered to care.
Not giving a fuck is how we got to the point to where these companies can dictate whose names you can mention, as they now get to set the Overton window as they see fit. [washingtonexaminer.com]
I don't like the taste of boot leather, and neither should you.
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Indeed. Though I still wonder whether "I hate hate speech" is hate speech.
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Indeed. Though I still wonder whether "I hate hate speech" is hate speech.
Depends on who is saying it, and whether Google or Youtube is already looking for an excuse to ban them.
Great (Score:1)
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The parent might get modded as a troll, but it's the truth. Violate some obscure rule buried in some 300 page TOS, and your investment goes bye-bye, I'm (not) sorry, but I don't need another "king": to have to keep happy.
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How long do you think? (Score:2)
exclusives? (Score:1)
I don't get it, do exclusives really drive sales?
Why I would care about a game that's only available on one platform, even if I wan't to play it real bad it will not justify purchase of a console or whatever stadia is.
I still haven't played last of us and I really want to since apparently it's good, will I purchase ps4 for it? hell no, so why do they bother?
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It is more a combination of arrogance ("our game is so great that you _must_ have it, regardless of where you can get it") and stupidity. I have ignored Stadia, not only because I think the tech is not ready, but mainly because it is by Google. First, If I can prevent it, I will not feed that manifestation of evil. And second, I sometimes like to re-play games years later. Stadia will just be another failed Google service in a few years, if that.
Expiry date (Score:2)
So, 10 more games that will completely vanish from existence when google either cancel Stadia or decide those games aren't worth the harddrive space on the Stadia server?
2021 : Google Will Wind Down Stadia Games ... (Score:2)
Anyway all this "game streaming" trend is not a good idea for _many_ people : bandwidth, transfer limits, latency, ...
DOA Debacle (Score:1)
So 10 games do not want to be bought by me? (Score:2)
Well, too bad for them, Stadia is a lemon.