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Google have now finally unveiled their new cloud gaming service named Stadia, offering instant access to play games in Google Chrome.

What they joked was the worst-kept secret in the industry (no kidding), sounds like quite an interesting service. Certainly one that could eventually end up redefining what gaming is. A little hyperbolic maybe? I'm not so sure considering how easy this should be to jump into a game. On top of that, they very clearly talked about how it's built on Linux (Debian specifically) and Vulkan with custom GPUs from AMD.

Something they showed off, was how you could be watching a game trailer with a button to play it on Stadia and (supposedly within a few seconds) you would jump right into it. That's quite en exciting idea, one that would easily pull in quite a lot of people I've no doubt.

As for resolution, they said it will support 1080p and 4K around 60FPS at release with 8K being worked on as well but that sounds further out if anyone even cares about 8K right now.

They also showed off their new controller, with a dedicated Google Assistant button and a button to capture video immediately for YouTube:


While Google are making their own dedicated gamepad, they did say it will be compatible with other devices too.

They also announced partnerships with both Unity and Unreal Engine and Stadia will "embrace full cross-platform play" including "game saves and progression". They also had id Software, talk about how it didn't take long to bring the new Doom Eternal to Stadia, thanks to how they made the previous Doom game with Vulkan.

This means, that development for Linux is suddenly going to become a priority for a lot more developers and publishers. I don't want to overstate how important that is, but it's a very exciting prospect. This doesn't suddenly mean we're going to see a lot more Linux games on the desktop, but it's entirely possible after they go through all the work to get the games working on Linux with Vulkan for Stadia.

Stream Connect is another service they talked about. They mentioned how developers have pushed the boundaries of gaming but often local co-op is left out, as doing it multiple times in top-end games can require really beefy hardware. With Stadia, each instance would be powered by their servers so it wouldn't be such an issue. They also talked about how if you're playing some sort of squad-based game, how you could bring up their screen to see what they're doing which sounds very cool.

Google also announced the formation of their own game studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment, to work on exclusive games for their new service.

As for support from more external game developers, they mentioned how they've shipped "development hardware" to over 100 developers. From what they said, it should be open to smaller developers as well as the usual AAA bunch.

Stadia is confirmed to be launching this year and it will be first available in the US, Canada, UK and "most of Europe". One thing wasn't mentioned at all—price, but they said more details will be available in the summer. The official site is also now up on stadia.com and developers have their own website to look over.

Google also posted up some extra information on their developer blog:

Google believes that open source is good for everyone. It enables and encourages collaboration and the development of technology, solving real-world problems. This is especially true on Stadia, as we believe the game development community has a strong history of collaboration, innovation and shared gains as techniques and technology continually improve. We’re investing in open-source technology to create the best platform for developers, in partnership with the people that use it. This starts with our platform foundations of Linux and Vulkan and shows in our selection of GPUs that have open-source drivers and tools. We’re integrating LLVM and DirectX Shader Compiler to ensure you get great features and performance from our compilers and debuggers. State-of-the-art graphics tools are critical to game developers, and we’re excited to leverage and contribute to RenderDoc, GAPID and Radeon GPU Profiler — best of breed open-source graphics debugging and profiling tools that are continually improving.

There's probably plenty I missed, you can see their video on YouTube here.

As exciting and flashy as it sounds, it's obviously not Linux "desktop" gaming which is what the majority of our audience is likely interested in. However, things change and if it does become a huge hit we will cover it more often if readers request it. Linux gaming can mean all sorts of things from native games to emulators, Wine and Steam Play and now perhaps some cloud gaming so I don't want to rule it out. However, I can't see this replacing Steam, Humble, GOG, itch.io and so on for me personally.

Obviously there’s still a lot of drawbacks to such a service, especially since you will likely have zero ownership of the actual games so they could get taken away at any time when licensing vanishes. At least with stores like Steam, you still get to access those games because you purchased them. Although, this does depend on what kind of licensing Google do with developers and publishers, it might not be an issue at all but it’s still a concern of mine. Latency and input lag, are also two other major concerns but given Google's power with their vast networks, it might not be so bad.

Also, good luck monitoring your bandwidth use with this, it's likely going to eat up a lot all of it. YouTube and Netflix use up quite a bit just for watching a 30-minute episode of something in good quality, how about a few hours per day gaming across Stadia? Ouch.

That doesn't even address the real elephant in the room, you're going to be giving Google even more of your data if you use this service, a lot more. This is the company that failed to promptly disclose a pretty huge data leak in Google+ after all. I don't want to be some sort of scaremongering crazy-person but it's something to think about.

As always, the comments are open for you to voice your opinion on it. Please remain respectful to those with a different opinion on the matter.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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285 comments
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Liam Dawe Mar 19, 2019
Added more details.
eldaking Mar 19, 2019
Ugh, gaming "as a service". Frankly, this is worse than games not supporting Linux. Games might be developed for Linux (servers)... but then we can't buy the games to run in our Linux systems. This is the antithesis of FOSS - we don't even have the freedom to run the software ourselves. It's like the most intrusive always online DRM ever coupled with the least software freedom technology allows.
Dunc Mar 19, 2019
Quoting: ShmerlI'm not going to buy games from such services (it's like DRM cubed), but the fact that they are pushing Linux and Vulkan is a big boon for Linux gamers, since more engines and studios will support Linux, and if willing, will release their Linux games DRM-free as well.
Of course, if this takes off, they might stop releasing them altogether.

Quoting: silmethI believe you mean ‘we just needed to ask them nicely for their internal Linux builds which they were never gonna publish, and which will never see the light outside of our platform’. ;-)
Yep.

Okay, look... it's too early to pass judgement on this, and it's probably a Good Thing. Although Android didn't turn out to be the Linux-distro-for-phones we all hoped it would a decade ago, on balance it probably has been good for the wider Linux ecosphere, if only by shining the light of attention on the kernel and showing that you can build a major, popular, commercial platform on it. Stadia could be the same: in itself a locked-down DRM-riddled Google nightmare, but introducing the hold-outs in the games industry to Linux.

Let's wait and see.
danniello Mar 19, 2019
Google provided no information about: how much it will cost for publishers/developers? And more importantly how much it will cost players? It will be "buy once" approach or subscription based? Probably subscription based but how much games I will have in this subscription? All "stadia powered" games?

Or maybe subscription based payment for stadia account plus "buy once" approach per every single AAA game? Probably it is what Google and developers would enjoy the most (plus of course adding micro-transactions on top of it;) If yes - I do not think that it will be big success... Especially that it will be rental, so after developer or license vanish - bought game also will vanish...
Koopacabras Mar 19, 2019
the word is a wink to stadium?? uh ? so maybe they will focus on multiplayer
TheSHEEEP Mar 19, 2019
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Quoting: eldakingUgh, gaming "as a service". Frankly, this is worse than games not supporting Linux. Games might be developed for Linux (servers)... but then we can't buy the games to run in our Linux systems. This is the antithesis of FOSS - we don't even have the freedom to run the software ourselves. It's like the most intrusive always online DRM ever coupled with the least software freedom technology allows.
Nobody really cares as long as you can run the game.

Besides, this depends heavily on how exactly they do it.
A good model would be: If you own the game, you can run it normally or stream it (like, if you don't have a proper rig).
If it was really only available via streaming, then it would be pretty bad, indeed.
But in that case, I wouldn't see it having much success and fare the same as other streaming services so far.

Obviously, some games will always be excempt from this, as no streaming will ever get you the performance of a good rig.
Zlopez Mar 19, 2019
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Here comes the Evil Corp. Now you will be vendor locked not only by e-mail, cloud and other web services, but by the games itself. And as a bonus you can pay us with your privacy.

Thanks, I'll pass.
wvstolzing Mar 19, 2019
Quoting: chancho_zombiethe word is a wink to stadium?? uh ? so maybe they will focus on multiplayer

I haven't seen the official presentation, but there's a Digital Foundry video up already; and they're gushing on the new multiplayer possibilities.
Shmerl Mar 19, 2019
Quoting: DuncOf course, if this takes off, they might stop releasing them altogether.

Some might, especially the common DRM freaks. Others not. Why should they lose profit opportunities by skipping other popular stores like Steam, GOG and etc.?

I.e. imagine someone like CD Projekt Red releasing their Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia. They'll likely release it for Linux on GOG and Steam as well in such case.


Last edited by Shmerl on 19 March 2019 at 6:30 pm UTC
Shmerl Mar 19, 2019
Quoting: chancho_zombiethe word is a wink to stadium?? uh ? so maybe they will focus on multiplayer

I suppose. Stadia is Latin plural for stadium.
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