In 2016, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, stated that in the future streaming games will replace traditional consoles. At the time, the executive bet there would be just one more generation of consoles until the switch to streaming was applied. Well, when Guillemot said this was already underway the Xbox One and PS4 generation, we saw, later in 2016, the announcement of the PS4 Pro, and in 2017 the Xbox One X, hardware-enhanced versions, concept that became known as a "half generation" and now we are at the moment when both a new PlayStation and a new Xbox are being developed, another generation shift.
I believe the release of traditional consoles, with hardware dedicated to running a particular game library, will continue to be released for a long time, but I can't deny that the industry is starting to take streaming games more seriously right now, all of which because of the launch of a platform from one of the most powerful and prominent companies of our era. This company is Google and such a platform is Stadia. In this article we tell you everything you need to know to understand the Google Stadia game streaming service.
What is Google Stadia?
Unveiled in March 2019 during GDC 2019, Google Stadia is Google's bet for the future of the gaming market. Instead of betting on a traditional console, framed within a generation, competing with closed hardware with other options already established in the market, the company went straight to streaming, another piece in this selection of services and possibilities that directly use the capacity. network to operate.
In addition to being emphatic, claiming that the future of games is not on the console, Google has been stating all the potential that its platform can deliver throughout its maturity in the market. According to Madj Bakar, vice president of the engineering section of the Stadia team, Google Stadia can be faster and more responsive than a conventional PC, thanks to artificial intelligence.
This responsiveness Bakar meant is in relation to his push-button action and the on-screen remote control triggering the AI to work on predicting the next key to press. That's pretty crazy, because with this prediction in action, the player's action may end up being just a confirmation of what has already been performed. But, no wonder, this kind of predictability happens in other cases, such as smartphone photography, which is increasingly based on elements of computer photography.
Google has made several data centers available around the world, consisting of servers where video games are installed: the user using Stadia does nothing but connect to these data centers and start a streaming video session to start playing, This is the basic procedure how Google Stadia works.
These Google servers use custom processors running at 2.7 GHz clock, in addition to the GPU with a computational capacity of 10.7 TLOPs. For comparative purposes only, the Xbox One X GPU has 6.0 TFLOPs, while the PS4 Pro GPU has 4.2 TFLOPs. In addition to being more powerful, the hardware on which Google's servers are built is not closed, they are scalable. The company can extend the “firepower” as needed.
Google Stadia has technology that lets you play games with a resolution ranging from 720p to 4K, with HDR support at 60 frames per second. However, Google's idea is to support resolutions of up to 8K in the future at 120 frames per second.
Google stadia Price and Available Games
Google Stadia went live on November 19th. For now it is possible to be a subscriber to the platform only 14 countries: Belgium, Finland, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. There is no confirmation of when it will arrive in India.
Although it is a streaming platform, the focus of Google Stadia is not just selling a subscription, as, for example, with Netflix. Games available on the platform can be purchased individually, or you can subscribe to the service, called Stadia Pro, which gives you access to a game catalog. Subscription costs $ 10 / month (almost 700 rupees). In addition to the game catalog, the Stadia Pro subscriber also has technical advantages, non-subscribers, framed in what Google calls Stadia Base, can run games at full HD resolution. It is worth noting that for now the service is available only to subscribers, the mode of access, without subscription, will only arrive in 2020.
The games that are already available are as follows:
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey
- Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
- Destiny 2: The Collection
- Farming Simulator 2019
- Final Fantasy XV
- Football Manager 2020
- Grid 2019
- Gylt
- Just Dance 2020
- Kine
- Exodus Metro
- Mortal Kombat 11
- NBA 2K20
- Rage 2
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Samurai Shodown
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Thumper
- Tomb Raider 2013
- Trials Rising
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Does my connection support Google Stadia?
Even though it is not yet available in India, surely many who will read this article will wonder about the network's ability to handle such a platform, especially in our country, which is embarrassing when it comes to connection performance. Through this link on the Google Stadia site you can test if your connection meets the minimum requirements to handle game streaming in an acceptable way.
Google has its basic scaling parameters for connecting to Stadia, according to resolution, frame rate and sound mode:
720p at 60 FPS with stereo audio requires 10 Mbps .
1080p / 60 FPS HDR with 5.1 surround sound requires 20 Mbps .
4K / HDR at 60FPS with 5.1 surround sound requires 35 Mbps
If you are a subscriber to any streaming video platform, you know that the required speed is just one element in this equation for the best experience. The stability of this speed is also of paramount importance, with Google Stadia this is even more fundamental. If traditional PCs complain about frame rates that vary or are below what we expect, with platforms like Stadia we get rid of the hardware problem, but we can transfer this annoyance to the network that doesn't meet what we need to run at a certain resolution and rate. of frames.
The vast majority of reviews about Stadia praised Google's initiative, but pointed out that the platform is still far from the bombshell the company has attempted to cause in the market. The connection drops are constant, the graphics quality, especially in 4K, is below what is natively delivered by PC games, and the response time is significant. Of course the platform will evolve a lot, Google has this capability. So far, Google Stadia is delivering a good result only on the smartphone.
What devices can Google Stadia be enjoyed on?
The idea of playing anywhere is wonderful, but calmly, there are restrictions on the hardware. Google has not made its service that plural. For PC use you need to access through the Chrome browser, interaction with the game can be performed directly with a keyboard and mouse, it is also possible to play with a joystick. In addition to the official Stadia, PlayStation Sony DualShock 4 and Microsoft Xbox One or Microsoft Xbox 360 are enabled, you can also use the Nintendo Switch Pro controller.
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| Official Stadia Joystick |
For TV use, you need two Google products, the Chromecast Ultra and the official Stadia joystick, as it's the only controller that can interact with the TV version of the service. There is yet another however; at launch only the Chromecast Ultra sold in the Stadia Kit. The others need a firmware update.
To play on your smartphone, you need to know that while the service is available on Android devices, at the launch of Google Stadia, you will be able to play on Google Pixels 2, Pixel 3 and 3a or Pixel 4, which have at least Android Pie version. (9.0 or higher).