Products we love—Google Stadia

What is Google Stadia?

For a long time, the gaming wars have been fought between two categories: PC and Console. But a new contender is trying to enter the ring and it claims to be the future of gaming.

Google has submitted its entry for the best way to game by turning to what has already become the next step for most entertainment. We use it for work documents and file sharing and streaming movies at home. Now, we’re turning to it for games.

One of the main reasons that cloud gaming hasn’t taken off yet is because of the technology required to make the service a success. It’s just not the same as streaming a movie. In fact, it’s a lot more difficult.

When playing on a machine at home, all the processing happens right there, allowing a person’s input to be calculated instantly and shown on screen.

When streaming a show or video, the system already knows what needs to be shown next and can buffer, meaning it preloads the content, even before you get to it. Game streaming is several degrees more difficult in that it cannot benefit from buffering.

You see, video streaming is a one-way transaction. But game streaming is more of a dialogue. The system needs to send input from a player all the way to the servers and instantly return the response through the video feed. Games require twitch-like reactions and so, for a game to really feel like gaming, latency needs to feel non-existence.

That technological marvel is what all the biggest players are fighting to achieve. And whoever gets there first may very well be the new king of one of the largest industries in the world.

Cloud-based gaming and the environment

What does this have to do with our green earth? By using data centers, companies can optimize the way the machinery is utilized and therefore reduce production and waste. Several server blades in a data center can do more with less than isolated machines in every household. Technology and gaming can advance much further without having to cycle the hardware needed. So, all in all, this could be a win for sustainable tech. But how well is it delivering on its promise?

Cloud gaming has been attempted by several companies in the past, from Sony to Nvidia. But Google has become the poster child of cloud gaming with a service called Stadia. It’s impressive in that it can be accessed in a chrome browser, on an android phone, or with Chromecast. And what makes it so compelling is that the latency we mentioned earlier is lower than on any other service. I’ve had a chance to try it, and here’s what I’ve noticed.

Google Stadia Graphics

With Stadia, graphics can be a mixed bag. It’s not like running something on a computer where the user has the option to change whatever settings they like to get the kind of experience they want. Those choices are made for you by the developer. So while stadia touts that it is capable of 4K resolution at 60 fps, a game like Metro might push for native 4K at 30 fps, while Destiny will keep performance at 1080p resolution so that it can bump up it’s fps to 60 for competitive play. You aren’t guaranteed to get beautiful or reactive games, and that can make the investment feel a bit dodgy.

Google Stadia Latency

When playing a game, latency is measured in milliseconds, something you need a special setup to track. It’s the time between pressing a button and seeing the result on-screen. With many services, like Nvidia’s GeForce Now, there is a “mushiness” to your character’s actions when you play. You can sense a definitive sluggishness to your movement or choices. But if someone didn’t tell me I was streaming a game through Stadia, I wouldn’t be able to tell that I wasn’t simply playing locally. That sluggishness is virtually gone. And this is the real miracle of the technology. Poor graphics are an inconvenience. Poor latency is a deal-breaker.

Google Stadia Price

The gaming industry has become increasingly competitive over the years, and so has pricing. Most games on any platform start at a standard MSRP of $60. But with pro subscriptions and frequent discounts, players can enjoy games that cost half a billion dollars to make for less than twenty bucks. This makes gaming affordable and accessible to a lot of people. Unfortunately, Stadia doesn’t follow that same model. Stadia’s games, even when discounted, are often priced two times the standard sale price on other platforms. On top of that, PC and Console games benefit from a library of free-to-play games, but even though Stadia has those games on their platform, they are kept behind a paywall. If you want access, you have to subscribe to their $10 monthly pro plan.

Google Stadia Games

It’s all about the games for most people, and this is where Stadia seriously falls short. In Google’s defense, they are a new and unproven service that requires developers to port games to their platform. It’s more work on a gamble. New to the industry, this is completely expected, but it still is a major factor when deciding whether or not to pick the service. Right now, most of their games consist of small studios and indie games, nothing exclusive. Many of Stadia’s games are older and already exist on consoles and PCs for much better prices and what’s new isn’t all that enticing.

Our conclusion?

Overall, Stadia is promising, but it isn’t quite there yet. It’s unpolished, unrealized, and somewhat unattractive—but it is improving. It is excellent in some aspects and not so great in others, but it is forging the way for the future of gaming and has the potential to make the environment better in the process so that’s what we love about it. Stick with your home console or PC for now, but know that we’re not that far off from gaming in the cloud. And once we get there, it can mean a whole lot of good for the earth.