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Stadia looks to be very limited at launch and not just the amount of games

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The official launch of Stadia is only days away, so Google recently hosted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) and we have some more details to share about it.

After finding out recently it's only going to have 12 games at launch, we have been wondering exactly what else from their service is going to be missing in action at launch. Now we know there's going to be a number of other limitations, thanks to the question and answer session. Here's a few newer details:

  • Google are going for a "gradual rollout and continuous improvement" approach based on feedback. With new features coming as early as a week after launch and possibly new features on a weekly basis.
  • You absolutely need an Android or iOS mobile device for Stadia, even if you're going to use a PC. The initial setup and to even buy games actually requires the Stadia mobile application. For playing on mobiles, Google will start by letting you play only on their Pixel line with it eventually rolling out to Apple devices and other Androids.
  • Only the Chromecast Ultra will work with 4K at launch. While playing on PC in a Chrome browser will work it is limited to 1080p, PC with Chrome will not yet support 4K, HDR or 5.1 Surround Sound.
  • They're not announcing the line-up of games included to play free in the Pro subscription yet. Apart from the already announced Destiny 2. If you stop paying for Pro, you lose games accessed with it.
  • The State Share feature, that allows people to jump into games at a specific point, and the Crowd Play to let people watching you join in will both be missing at launch. The first games to support them will come next year.
  • You won't be able to even view any achievements. The UI for it is not ready but you will still earn them right away there's just nothing available to see them.
  • If you have a family, you will be able to buy Stadia games for them but there's currently no Family Sharing feature. They said it's a high priority though, to come next year.
  • Stadia Names must be between 3 and 15 characters, letters or numbers.
  • There will not be another Stadia Connect video before launch.
  • You will be able to access Stadia even before your hardware arrives, as they will be emailing access codes to people when they ship the Founder and Premier Editions. So you can play on PC right away.

I said before this Debian Linux + Vulkan API powered streaming service faced an uphill battle, now it sounds like more of a mountain.

Overall, I can't help but feel like this is really a Beta/Soft Launch under a poor disguise given just how limited the Stadia service is actually going to be. Given the high price of entry for the Founder and Premier Editions it's a bit laughable really.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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42 comments
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Purple Library Guy Nov 17, 2019
Quoting: elmapuloh, no, here we go again.

i got when the government of my country (and many others) said it would use free software and the project to promote linux.
if failed, the distro chosen by oems sucked most of the time, most people replaced the default distro with an pirated version of windows and the name, linux, was burned by the bad experiences that people had with those crapy distros.

i got excited with netbooks (one laptop per children) thinking linux would finally take off
if failed

i got excited with android
its a sucess, but it dont matter from an gamer point of view (gatcha "isnt" gaming) , from the desktop point of view (as the games, many productivy apps didnt came to linux desktop) and many peopl consider android more closed than windows.
i got excited with chromeOS...
it didnt run regular linux softwares for years, and it couldnt get mainstream adoption.

i got excited with when valve anounced the steam machines,they delayed... i got my hype frozen to the point that i got anxienty problems, steam machines floped, failed to gain traction.
i got excite with might n9 and that it was coming to linux, floped (bad game)
i got excite with yooka laylee, floped (bad game)
i got excite with Blood Stained, linux version canceled (and the game is good, sigh, i'm soo excited for the game i cant play)
i got excite with we happy feel, linux version canceled and looks like the game was bad
not to mention, street fighter 5, witcher 3, darksiders...
i got excited with HTML5...
most of the flash aplications (and games) didnt got ported and lets be honest, triple A games wont be ported, google failed once with NaCl, and trying to push webGl, webGL2, webAssembly, didnt solved this issue


i got excited with stadia,come on!
So you're saying we can use you getting excited as a sign to know we shouldn't get excited?
grumpytoad Nov 17, 2019
I have a colleague doing the XBox streaming beta - and a few things stand out: this technology is very smooth, the latency being negligeble even on a 4G connection. He has used his controller and connected it to various phones and android devices, saying you get high-grade desktop graphics running without issues on cheap devices. It sounds like the target audience will not be desktop devices - so in my mind it doesn't really make sense to compare this with the current desktop market, or the linux market for that matter.

It would be interesting if Stadia expands this to a wider market of android devices, because AFAIK it only targets the Pixel phone ?
TheRiddick Nov 18, 2019
stadia is owned by google, and they have a lot of money to do it correctly first time. That is have features people want.

People saying they need to start at steam alpha version level of features are kinda silly. Same goes for EPIC store, lots of money but minimal spent on app and features... These are not companies that really care about the users or value of their service.....
Skipperro Nov 18, 2019
All of this doesn't really matter. I personally don't care how many games are there on start, on what devices it will run or if there are some missing social-media features.

Google claims, they can create a new way of playing games by finally making streaming playable. If they really achieve low latency with high image quality, so it's console-like experience - fantastic! Other features, games and support for hardware will follow it they prove it's valid.
But if they don't get latency and quality right, it doesn't matter if they have 10000 games running on everything, connected to social media and your toaster, when it all sucks.

So... Latency and quality is key, everything else comes second.
KuJo Nov 18, 2019
Playable titles at start raised up to 22:
-> https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1196244423006277632?s=20

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
Destiny 2: The Collection (included in Stadia Pro)
Farming Simulator 2019
Final Fantasy XV
Football Manager 2020
GRID
Gylt
Just Dance 2020
Kine
Metro Exodus
Mortal Kombat 11
NBA 2K20
Rage 2
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Red Dead Redemption 2
Samurai Shodown (included in Stadia Pro)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Thumper
Tomb Raider
Trials Rising
Wolfenstein: Youngblood

QuoteGiven the high price of entry for the Founder and Premier Editions it's a bit laughable really.

The Founders Edition includes:

1x Chromecast Ultra (approx. 80 Euro)
-> https://store.google.com/de/product/chromecast_ultra
1x Stadia Controller (approx. 70 Euro)
-> https://store.google.com/de/product/stadia_controller

Alone with the hardware one would have a price of 150€. There are the three months Stadia Pro, the limited edition of the controller and the Buddy Pass for three months Stadia Pro and the possibility to reserve your player name early is not included yet.

For this content a bundle price of 129€ is really not expensive.

Excuse me, but if something is a little laughable, then it is this statement.

BTW "... founder ...":
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/founder_1
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/founder?s=t


Last edited by KuJo on 18 November 2019 at 12:23 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Nov 18, 2019
Quoting: KuJo
QuoteGiven the high price of entry for the Founder and Premier Editions it's a bit laughable really.

The Founders Edition includes:

1x Chromecast Ultra (approx. 80 Euro)
-> https://store.google.com/de/product/chromecast_ultra
1x Stadia Controller (approx. 70 Euro)
-> https://store.google.com/de/product/stadia_controller

Alone with the hardware one would have a price of 150€. There are the three months Stadia Pro, the limited edition of the controller and the Buddy Pass for three months Stadia Pro and the possibility to reserve your player name early is not included yet.

For this content a bundle price of 129€ is really not expensive.

Excuse me, but if something is a little laughable, then it is this statement.
Seems you missed my point completely, my entire point was on the game lineup and feature list, not what you get in the box. Regardless of the hardware, you had no choice on getting them to access it right away.
Nanobang Nov 18, 2019
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My guess is that this service is primarily aimed at the mobile market and getting things in place on the ground floor for the much ballyhooed 5g network---a sort of Steam for the mobile market.

Personally, the whole thing leaves me deeply unimpressed. Essentially Stadia players are paying for the privilege of being data generating machines for Google. I'm simply not prepared to pay a monthly fee just to pay yet more money buying/leasing games solely to generate data for Google to sell to advertisers.

If Google wants my data, I will gladly share it with them for a small fee. In the case of Stadia, they can give me the games and controller in exchange for the data I then generate playing those games. Otherwise, like Gmail, Google docs, and the rest of it, Google can just piss off.


Last edited by Nanobang on 18 November 2019 at 1:39 pm UTC
sub Nov 18, 2019
The big German PC-Gaming magazine Gamestar has tested Stadia,
and they are very positively surprised from the gaming experience.
I thought they could be biased against it, as PC stakeholder so to say - but no.

Now I'm waiting what Liam has to say about it.

Edit:

And heise.de a very reputable source.
They also report a very positive first experience.


Last edited by sub on 18 November 2019 at 9:43 pm UTC
wvstolzing Nov 19, 2019
Interesting take on Stadia in this twitter feed:
twitter feed on Stadia, by @mcclure111
Purple Library Guy Nov 19, 2019
Quoting: wvstolzingInteresting take on Stadia in this twitter feed:
twitter feed on Stadia, by @mcclure111
That is actually quite interesting.
And I do get the feeling that Google is institutionally kind of like that--they build technologies first, and then figure out if anyone wants it or if there's a way of making money from it. But I think Google actually sees it as a strategy--like, they've got the money to do a bunch of that kind of stuff and fail a bunch of times, and it may be worth it as long as when a few of them succeed, they succeed big, which will tend to be the case with visionary tech. For that matter, they're so big it would almost be worth their time to make a bunch of cool tech that never makes them a dime, just for the morale boost from employees feeling like they're still a cool company that does cool things rather than an old school fuddy-duddy like IBM.
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