Stadia - Google's game streaming service

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Tafdolphin
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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Tafdolphin » Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:13 pm

twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1365376842765651970


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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Lagamorph » Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:18 pm

Missed sales targets, and yet when people were snapping the things up on the Cyberpunk offer they pulled the deal to stop people getting them.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Jenuall » Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:22 pm

Probably made a deal where CDPR got half a mil per sale on that offer or something!

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Monkey Man » Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:22 pm

Google‘s Stadia team cancelled dozens of projects and third-party licensing deals as part of its shift away from video game production in recent months, people with knowledge of its plans told VGC.

The Google cloud gaming division cancelled a multiplayer game led by a former Assassin’s Creed creative, a sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet and backed out of proposals for Hideo Kojima (Death Stranding) and Yu Suzuki (Outrun) to create exclusive games for Stadia, the sources said.

The Kojima Productions project is understood to have been positioned as an episodic horror game. Sources indicated that the Japanese studio was keen to innovate in the cloud gaming space, but the deal was ultimately blocked by Stadia GM Phil Harrison last year.

This is possibly the project designer Hideo Kojima was referring to last summer, when he told a Japanese publication he had recently seen a “major” project cancelled. “I’m pretty pissed, but that’s the games industry for you,” he said.

Kojima Productions did not offer a response to this story.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... -and-more/

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Tafdolphin » Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:31 pm

Saw a response on Reset pointing out the Phil Harrison was in charge during the worst business periods for both Xbox and PlayStation and now he's directly, personally strawberry floated the Stadia launch too. And yet no doubt he'll be moved upwards after he eventually leaves Google.

OH WELL

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Dual » Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:39 pm

A Kojima horror game maybe exclusive to stadia? And they canned it? Wow.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by KK » Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:16 pm

I don't remember Phil Harrison being this useless in the PS1 and 2 era. He had hair then though. Maybe he's like Samson.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Zilnad » Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:20 pm

Dual wrote:A Kojima horror game maybe exclusive to stadia? And they canned it? Wow.


Yeah that's just insane. That article is really interesting. It's like they wanted the thing to fail.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by jawa2 » Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:22 pm

I can't quite believe how badly Google handled the introduction and launch of Stadia. On paper, the basic idea - streaming games without the need for dedicated hardware, and play on multiple devices - sounds like a winner. The weak game range and lack of living up to the plan really cost them, though. The damage has been compounded by the comms around the development closure; your average person will probably think that the Stadia service has been ended.

For a giant company with huge funding, it's such an incredible and costly mistake; both financially and in terms of reputation.

I still feel that streaming will be the future for the major part of core videogaming, though.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Sun Feb 28, 2021 9:05 pm

Despite all of this undeniably terrible press and, indeed, terrible fudgery of how to release a console (except it's not a console, but is clearly being treated like one even by the people running it), I'm still really enjoying this.

In fact, it's usually the first controller I tend to pick up because of the sheer convenience and lack of messing around with downloads etc. It's definitely the future, I'm still buying new things on Stadia even now.

Quite looking forward to Pixel junk raiders coming out tomorrow, which is apparently exclusive (for now) and uses the new 'state share' feature, which again you can only do on Stadia.

Can't say I really understand what 'state share' really is myself, but it's all very exciting. It's something like you can share your game with someone else at any point, including your progress and weapons etc, for them to be able to pick up and have a go.

Oh I don't know. If it's any good, I'll be up for state sharing with the tiny band of Stadia players on here.

Or, indeed, the tiny band worldwide.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by jawa2 » Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:26 am

Abacus wrote:...I'm still really enjoying this.

In fact, it's usually the first controller I tend to pick up because of the sheer convenience and lack of messing around with downloads etc. It's definitely the future, I'm still buying new things on Stadia even now...

I'm digging that you're enjoying your Stadia experience, Abacus! Although there is a lot of noise around the thing, the core functionality does sound pretty cool. More power to you, dude!

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 2:59 pm

Thanks Jawa!

I totally get why a lot of people are down on it and there has been such press, mind.

Just wanted to leave my impressions for how I'm actually finding it. Really looking forward to sitting down with Pixeljunk Raiders a bit later on.

But there are certainly a number of baffling decisions Google have made here with how they have gone about things overall, not denying that.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Carlos » Mon Mar 01, 2021 4:47 pm

I always wondered why they didn't licence the 8/16-bit back catalog of Sega to fatten up the games collection a bit. Those titles were so small they could have been held in the buffer of your controller whilst you played meaning you didn't even need to 'stream' them.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:17 pm

Well, I wondered this myself Carlos. Thing is, it takes about 5 seconds to play most games, so the streaming bit makes no difference. In fact, they've made a way to make streaming work so that you don't even know that's how you're playing.

What it would have done, though, would be to give Stadia a bit of gaming credibility as if they knew the market they were in at least.

But they clearly don't know it. I guess they wouldn't have done that because their original idea was to sell top of the line game experiences, so suddenly putting Alex Kidd on it would detract from that. So they've ended up in a position of trying to sell a service that works, based on a product that they don't understand.

In fact, it's such a contradictory thing altogether. It's really one reason why I'm enjoying the experiment.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:18 pm

Oh, Pixeljunk Raiders is a rare Stadia exclusive (presumably a timed one). I think it's OK. It's fun enough but not my kind of thing in general. Branching skill trees etc. I'll keep at it for a bit, and I can see lots of people loving this.

A nice sense of humour, interesting space setting, probably a decent campaign if you stick with it. I'll play a bit more tomorrow myself to see if it clicks more.

But here comes the contradiction; the big selling point is state share. Understand it better, now. You can essentially see the ghosts of other people's games, and activate those ghosts. Someone lay a mine here? Yeah, sure, I'll try that.

Or, you can play from a point your friend sets you on their game. And they can see your ghost.

It's a good idea. The trouble is, your friends won't be playing on Stadia in the first place. Like I say, contradictory.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:25 pm

Here's another contradictory thing. The Stadia Pro subscription. For £8.99 a month, you get a few new games a month, this month including Pixeljunk Raiders, Amicii Invectors (which I love) and a few other things I forget. You get to play them for as long as you subscribe, and if you stop and then resubscribe, they always come back, even if they've dropped off the Pro list in the meantime.

This seems like a bargain, meaning you're tempted to claim everything. Treat them all like a demo, even stuff like F1 you don't normally like.

The criticism of Pro is that there aren't enough games, and certainly there is not that much unique to Stadia.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:28 pm

But, my criticism is that there are too many, and I've cancelled Pro this month for that reason.

Worse for a software company, it's all down to the UI. I've claimed about 25 games on Pro. That means all 25 sit there on the home screen in one long line, along with the stuff I own. Sometimes, I play a game for 5 minutes, realise I don't like it, and want it to go away. But I can't make it; it stays there forever, no way to remove or even hide it.

Then, I forget what I've played and what I haven't. Some games, I realised, I'd never played. Other games I've started about 5 times, before realising I'd already given up on it. It sounds like a small thing, but on the big consoles, having a way to sort, stack, or delete games easily took them a while to develop but are so worthwhile.

It's left me in the ridiculous position of having an A4 sheet of paper next to my TV, with a list of all the games I've claimed, which ones I like, and which are worth playing before my sub expires in mid March.

Another aspect of that; if I claim a game, I then can't buy it unless I'm unsubscribed. Some games, I've played enough that I know I want to own, subscription or not.

It's left me in the ridiculous position of cancelling my subscription this month. Purely to do two things; first, to remove all the clutter of unwanted games from my home screen.

Second, to see how much some of those games cost to buy, and maybe buy them. I'll maybe resubscribe after that.

But why give you an incentive to cancel your subscription, instead of just having a simple way of organising the home screen?

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Abacus » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:35 pm

Contradictory position 2.

I'm a convert to this, no doubt about it. I've often thought; just let people try it for a bit. They'll see how it works, understand it and be won over.

And yet, the way they've chosen to do that will actually drive people away.

It sounds appealing; you can download Stadia for free, and get a free trial for a month, to play on your phone, tablet etc. You can also use a Bluetooth controller, a PS or Xbox one on it. So, it costs you nothing to try it, hardware wise. Jump in.

Plus, it's actually a good subscription, not like Sky. You get a warning before it renews, it's one button press to cancel.

But it's exactly the wrong way to showcase Stadia. People are sus about streaming games because of lag etc, and fair enough if they are.

That's what Google have (mostly) solved by having a controller that connects directly and separately to the servers, it skips several intermediary points where lag gets introduced. You don't get the proper Stadia experience without the controller, imo.

And yet people will get their free demo playing in a sub optimal way, find the glitches, reconfirm what they thought about streaming and give up.

Today, Amicii Invector, a music rhythm game was released 'free' on Pro. I love this kind of game, will play it later again. But it relies on split second reactions.

So, if you took a pro trial today, used your PS4 controller, and hated it because of lag, you'd think streaming could never work.

Again, contradictions. You find a way to showcase this for free, then actively prove your detractors right because you haven't shown them how it does work when done properly.

Oh anyway, I'm going for another poke on Pixeljunk Raiders. Think I've figured out what I was doing wrong :toot:

My reign of terror Stadia posts on this forum is done for this evening

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by Preezy » Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:07 am

Well I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this, Abacus! I've still only got Cyberpunk through Stadia and cancelled my Pro subscription at the start of Feb. I haven't had as much free time to play on it recently but I've always got my eye on new releases and am just waiting for Football Manager to get announced/released and I'll be back on the Stadia train in no time.

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PostRe: Stadia - Google's game streaming service
by more heat than light » Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:24 am

Abacus wrote:Sometimes, I play a game for 5 minutes, realise I don't like it, and want it to go away. But I can't make it; it stays there forever, no way to remove or even hide it.


What?! :lol:

Are there any benefits of Stadia over Game Pass? I guess maybe the permanence of the games on Pro? I can't think of many.

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