General Discussions

From Nvidia's Now where you can stream your own games to the new Amazon services they all seem better in the price point that google has.

But I think the real killer will come from microsoft X-cloud being a more netflix sytle services and the upcomming xcloud stick it will match chromecast.

Speaking of chromecast it is telling the new verison dosn't support stadia out of the box but will be comming soon in a update Q2 of next year. That shows how much google is really putting in stadia.

While google more than has the funds to keep Stadia going for a long time but google also has a long history of quickly ditching its projects that don't perform what google wants.

My guess is Stadia will be lucky to last a year or 2 before google pulls the plug.

I still use Stadia daily. I know a lot of people bash it, when they have never seen it or used the services. I've been fortunate enough to be a part of the process when they started alpha testing back when Assassin's Creed Odyssey was new. I have never had a single point of lag or interruption of game servers from the start. Each game looked amazing at full detail on any screen used.
The one thing I do dislike is the pay structure. I think we have come to a day that you pay a flat rate subscription like Gamepass, and have all access to any game. That I think would level the playing field against what's coming up.
I think with this new Amazon Luna I have here will be something many will have a hard time competing against. They have a more in-line flat rate sub fee for a genre of games that I think will attract a better baseline for people like me who would use this service.
All we can do is wait and watch.

I'm fortunate enough to have a decent enough gaming PC that runs everything pretty comfortably at high/very high but the idea of something like Stadia does appeal to me as it would allow me to play more demanding games in more places and on more devices. I get though that by being able to run current PC titles well I'm probably not the target market for Stadia and I know plenty of people without gaming PCs where Stadia would be a more attractive option for them than it is for me.

I've only given Stadia a quick go and the service worked ok but the issue I have with Stadia is that you are paying a monthly subscription and paying top prices for the games as well. I get that there is a cost for Google and that like most businesses they want to make a decent profit from it but I don't feel I'm getting value for money from it.

I don't like the idea of having to pay to buy a game and then having to pay to be able to access the game. Yes you get a few games included in the subscription but there isn't enough of a catalogue of games I'm interested in that have so far been included in that.

As a consumer I think Nvidia's approach is the more compelling offer.

If I could buy a game elsewhere like on Steam and add it to my Stadia library even if I had to pay say a small one off charge for doing so it would make the service much more attractive to me personally.

To actually answer the question of how long Stadia will last, as I realised that in my previous post I never actually touched on that.

In it's current state I can't see Google sticking with it for too long.

I don't imagine it's doing the numbers Google want to see from it and if we've learned anything from Google it's that they aren't afraid to kill off products and services if they don't deliver. They are a business that can afford to invest millions in a product or service just to see how it performs.

I think Microsoft and Nvidia are doing a good job of making Stadia look like a worse offer for customers, I don't know enough about Amazon's upcoming service to know how compelling an offer that will be.

The only way I can see Stadia lasting another couple of years is if they rethink the business model.

The key is does it work? If Stadia streams flawlessly and smoothly people are going to pay for it. I just doubt very much that it will.

Xbox streaming doesnt really work. I've been right next to an extremely high speed wireless router and it wont work on a phone, which it's designed to. Sure, the game will run and it looks beautiful, but even an occasional button lag is too much for most gamers to put up with consistently. And the lag is far more than occasional.

As we enter a world where technical specs are getting beefier among casual gamers, I don't see how they'll all of a sudden accept a huge technological downgrade in simply not being able to press the button you need to on time.

I guess if you're hard wired into a router or something it might be better, but then whats the point of having it streaming and all if youre hardwired into your router like any other console or PC? You just want the priveledge of being able to pay google to game? I suppose theres the argument of "hey not everyone can afford gaming PCs" but... then they probably wont want to pay for a monthly subscription service either if money is too tight. So I don't really know who this is for. If its for the masses it needs to work flawlessly over wireless internet and I have yet to see a game streaming service that can accomplish this consistently.

I just dont see it being a sustainable business model. Microsoft is adding it to an already feature rich service but Stadia is just like, "hey heres what you CAN play for your subscritption cost, most games you cant, and it's probably going to be technically glitchy for the forseeable future at least. Cheers!"

I'll never understand why anyone would trust Google enough to build up their libraries for Stadia. They've pulled the plug on so many failed projects over the years that I just would never accept that they're in this for the long haul.

These are my thoughts as well. They had a strong presence at PAX West one year and never saw them again in terms of marketing. They have a lack luster collection of game titles compared to other PC gaming store platforms.

There are also alternative streaming services that are built around your existing library of games from Steam, EGS, etc instead of rebuying everything through their own store (e.g. Shadow). This is far less risky in that if this service dies, your game library is left untouched because it's not something you need to invest with this service.

All of that combined, I just feel far too skeptical about the fate of Stadia. It feels like a service that Google is willing to pull the plug on at any given moment with your money invested just gone.