
Ask HN: What is the current state of Google Stadia? - antisthenes
Considering how much it was hyped about 6-7 months ago, there seems to be a distinct lack of news about the product recently.<p>Is streamed gaming dead, again?<p>If you are a user, what has your experience been in the last few months?
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Raed667
I (and a lot of other people) refuse to buy Stadia games.

Mainly because after spending ~60$ on a game, to keep having access to it, you
have to keep paying a subscription. Even if you only play in solo mode.

\---

Edit: it appears that you "only" need a subscription if you want to play @4K,
this is was communicated so badly it stuck in my mind since the lunch.

The point still stands that when google eventually shuts down the platform,
your games will evaporate and you don't own anything.

~~~
amscanne
Isn’t the subscription only for Stadia Pro, which gets you 4K streaming & some
free access to games? I thought you still had access to purchased games
(though not 4K) without the subscription.

If indeed this is the case (maybe I’m wrong?) and there’s a “lot of other
people” that aren’t interested in Stadia for this reason, that seems like a
big failure in communication. The fact that I can’t answer the question with a
few minutes of Googling is alarming.

~~~
badsectoracula
You cannot have perpetual access (that is "keep having access to it") on a
platform that doesn't give you the games directly but you can only access via
what is essentially a glorified terminal. I do not think there is any
communication failure there: if you cannot download the game and keep it on
your collection without having to bother with Google's servers then you cannot
have perpetual access by design.

(usually people bring up Steam here, but with Steam you do get to download the
game and while often it is tied on Steam, most of the time it is trivial to
remove that dependency and many games do not even have it - though Steam isn't
the only place to get games, personally i buy all my new games from GOG where
i have about 660 games and all of them are stored on my own external HDD...
which btw also contains games from services that are now defunct)

~~~
serf
>most of the time it is trivial to remove that dependency and many games do
not even have it

it's also, much of the time, practically impossible to remove the dependency.

Most online-tied steam games do some form of verification of the game files.
Most steam work-arounds are modified executables or DLLs. Many (most) of the
steam work-arounds carry the caveat 'offline only'.

If you're lucky enough to buy from a developer that cares enough to avoid
using the steam tie-ins, great -- but it shouldn't at all be expected. It's
uncommon for games from any decently large developer.

Kudos to Paradox for avoiding most of the steam tie-in stuff. A few others,
but it's not an attribute I really considered recording -- one should avoid
Steam all together if DRM-avoidance is the goal.

~~~
badsectoracula
Yeah, sadly this is true if you care about online gaming. Even games on GOG
often rely on their client or some other form of online service for their
multiplayer functionality. I think this is largely because people over the
years learned to rely on external servers instead of the earlier P2P approach
like what was used in the 90s Quake games where at best you'd have a central
server that listed people's but that was optional and you could avoid it.

It was quite an eye opening experience when i noticed several complains at an
online forum years ago about a game _not_ coming out of the box with dedicated
servers and only allowing P2P connections - essentially people were asking for
a game to be tied on a company's servers that would inevitable shut down when
the game ceased to be profitable.

But at least for single player games things are much better. Personally i do
not care about online gaming so i tend to forget this :-P.

And yeah some games (though it is far from the majority) aren't easy to remove
the steam dependencies from (btw all you need are some open source tools, no
need to rely on shady alternative DLLs or EXEs). This is why i only buy games
on Steam when the price is very low, like less than $10 (and that for games i
really like, for other games i might not buy them unless they're less than
$5), so that if i cant remove the dependency it wont be that much of a loss to
me and i'd still get to play the game in short term. Lately i usually just
wait for a GOG or itch.io release though, unless it is some weird indie game
that most likely wont appear on GOG or itch.io anyway.

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rangera
Stadia has been really great for me, in my sort of unusual case. I usually
play a video games for a month, then not at all for several months, then back
on. In my current situation it didn’t make any sense to spend so much money on
a console, to barely use it. I definitely can’t play any games on my MacBook.

Stadia meant I could buy the game I really wanted to play (Red Dead 2), and
not worry at all about how to play it. I’m currently on the free trial of the
Pro subscription (which enables 4K streaming), but I probably won’t renew. I
can keep playing for FREE, capped at 1080p, which I would expect will be just
fine. Lag has been non-existent, video quality could be a little better but
it’s phenomenal for live streaming IMO.

Edit for context: My internet connection typically hovers around 60Mbps, and I
play with an ethernet connection (which I got for remote work, not for gaming,
but it's been great).

~~~
dave84
This is exactly my use case. I wanted to play Red Dead Redemption 2 during the
lockdown but I didn’t want to spend €300-400 on a console that I won’t play
afterwards. The stadia experience for me has been brilliant. If it disappears
in a few years along with my game I won’t be happy but it’s not much different
to owning Red Dead Redemption 1 on disc and a broken Xbox 360. Total cost of
ownership is lower for me and I’m willing to take the risk.

~~~
TechBro8615
Idk where you are getting these prices from. You can get a used Xbox one for
£150.

~~~
dave84
They’re literally the retail prices. I’m not going to buy a used console
online during lockdown.

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avallach
I bought and played FFXV for 20€ (discounted) and I don't have to pay any
subscription fees. Graphic quality is sometimes bit disappointing (video
compression artifacts and less details), but it's always smooth. I'm happy
with it, much less hassle than trying to run it on my Linux. Games start very
quickly without installing and don't need GBs of local storage.

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simonkafan
Status of Stadia? Well, you still have a little over 3 years to try it out...
[http://stadiacountdown.com/](http://stadiacountdown.com/)

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drusepth
On Twitter, everyone wants to make you believe it's dead and a laughingstock
of the Internet. Yet Stadia's tweets get way more likes/engagement now than
they did months ago, so it definitely feels like it's growing. Outside of
Twitter, if you mention Stadia it usually prompts a "What's that?" 99% of the
time for me.

As a user, I'm extremely happy. I recently moved from Google Fiber (Kansas
City) to Portland (Xfinity) so I was a little worried that Stadia only worked
so well because I was on fiber + Google, but it's worked amazingly well out
here as well.

I briefly tried GeForce Now since it's cheaper and it was _fine_ , but I had
some input stuttering and graphics downscaling that was an immediate
dealbreaker for me compared to the flawless experience I had on Stadia.

To me, it seems like Stadia has the tech down solid, and the biggest downside
is the game library. However, they also seem to be picking up the pace they
release new games at, and there's way more games per month free on Pro now
than there was months ago, so that's really exciting to me.

I play Stadia on the same TV I have a gaming PC (mostly for VR, but
occasionally for RPGs with an Xbox controller), a Nintendo Switch, and an Xbox
One -- and I've found myself pretty exclusively using the Switch and Stadia
for the past few months.

I doubt I'll buy another game in the future outside of Stadia, unless it's
something for the Switch. The Xbox is pretty dead to me now (and I don't think
I'll upgrade to a next-gen console) and I much prefer Stadia over my gaming PC
since I can also play games on other devices now.

I'm excited for Amazon's Project Tempo and Microsoft's xCloud, because they
might be better at getting the licensing needed for massive amounts of games
at once. In the meantime, Stadia seems like a clear leader in streamed gaming
to me.

~~~
meritt
Not sure how ubiquitous the service is across the city but you can get
1000/1000 fiber from CenturyLink in parts of Portland.

~~~
drusepth
Unfortunately in my building (downtown, west of the river) my options are
750mbps from Xfinity or 10mbps from CenturyLink [1]... for the same price.

I've been on Google Fiber for years and I worry it spoiled me. I wish there
were more tenable options than Xfinity-which-definitely-isn't-Comcast.

[1] [https://i.imgur.com/4qWViL3.png](https://i.imgur.com/4qWViL3.png) (this
pains me to see)

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theroax
It's working perfect for me. I bought some games and a I can play them without
paying the subscription. So it is like a free cloud console if you buy the
games.

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itchynosedev
I love the experience of firing some adventure games on my Macbook, grabbing
the controller and chilling on the sofa.

My xbox one x and a 4k screen in the office room, but I can't be bothered to
sit in the chair and wait until everything boots to play for an hour on a
Tuesday night.

The video artifacts can make the picture a bit muddy (esp. darker levels or
games) but all in all, it runs smoothly, I can't notice any input lag that's
longer than on my xbox.

Games start quickly, run smoothly, and there are some bangers that will take
me months to exhaust, so I am not that worried about the library.

The issues start when someone in your house starts streaming HD videos, than
stuttering begins. I have 100 mbit copper, I am pretty close to google data
centers it seems, in Western Europe.

I bought Stadia controller and a few games. The controller feels great and
pairs quickly. I mostly game either on my Windows PC through chrome (4k) or my
macbook (1080).

I really love it!

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paulie_a
I just got one last week. Games started instantly with no lag or artifacts and
I have a 20mb connection. Obviously the Chromecast aspect is great.

I got three months free so I will continue to play and see then if I will
renew

I bought a couple games already and those are always in your library. So just
add all the free ones. If you cancel those games are still available to you

I'm hooking it up in my room when I go in for surgery.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Thanks for saying the Chromecast aspect is great. I worked on the streaming
receiver component for Chromecast. :-) I've been wondering how well it's been
working for people -- my home internet won't work for Stadia, and I'm working
on other things now.

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d0gbread
Stadia has been perfect for me, zero complaints. The subscription is well
worth having a library of games to explore (or replay, in the case of
Superhot).

I'm a new dad, so jumping in and out of games is important. Sadia makes that
easy, unlike the huge updates on my Switch (nevermind the filled SD card). I
also love that I can move room to room without needing additional docks - just
a multi purpose chromecast.

There is so much fear/noise in this thread about Google shutting it down, and
I gotta say, I'm just not worried about that. If it happens, so be it, I'll
have gotten plenty of value out of the platform. Are you not going to see a
movie in a movie theater because you don't own it after and the theater might
go out of business someday? Are you all still buying Blu-ray? Everything dies,
live a little, go stream Doom Eternal.

------
Kaze404
You still don't own anything you purchase, so that's already a no for me. I'd
be willing to let it slide though, were it not for Google's history with
discontinuing products.

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ronnie86
I have been using Stadia since launch. The streaming service works perfectly,
never any lag. The only problem I have with stadia is the lack of games. Red
dead redemption and Assassins creed odyssey are the top titles and both are at
least 1.5 years old. I also believe Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on stadia
but it will not be available on launch day. Stadia needs games.....

~~~
joefarish
Performance wise I've been very happy with Stadia so far. I also think once
FIFA and Madden are released there will be a significant uptick in player
numbers.

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ID1452319
Brilliant. I've played PUBG constantly since May and before that Division 2 -
two "low latency" games which apparently should suffer on Stadia.

I think since November I've paid the monthly subs twice, due to the "free"
months from the Founder's Edition and then Google offering another three
months free.

I've bought a handful of games, the most expensive was Grid for £55 and
Division 2 (£8) and the WoNY expansion (£25).

I have a fairly standard connection, 40Mbps down and 18 up.

Overall it has vastly exceeded by expectations. As a causal gamer I find it
perfect to dip in and out of, without the need to layout £500 on a console or
wait for huge Gb updates.

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butz
How is Stadia and other game streaming platforms dealing with "bitrate killer"
effects (e.g. grid patterns, flashing etc.)? Do they have enough bandwidth or
does it become a pixelated mess like in youtube videos?

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londons_explore
I'd guess it's a typical "We built some amazing tech, but released it 90%
finished with some critical bugs, and now the project is paralyzed while we
fix those bugs rather than develop it."

~~~
bilbo0s
What's worse is that, a lot of the time, that last 10% of implementation can
require the majority of the development time. Not always, but often.
Definitely with tech like video game streaming, I can see the last mile being
the most difficult.

~~~
akbo
I'll just leave this here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-
ninety_rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule)

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hbogert
experience based on chrome under linux; it was laggy, while I should've been
the best case they could cater to. FiberTTH, 2ms to google.

It constantly gave me the laggyness that you get on a console, but on a PC,
but worse!

Yes, you get used to it, until you play something locally again and are
reminded it's not good. (maybe it was my setup to blame in this case.)

------
londons_explore
They've started a pretty big YouTube ad campaign, I guess taking advantage of
recent low ad prices.

~~~
speps
Why would they pay to promote when they own YouTube anyway?

~~~
a_humean
When you are as large a company as google is its easier for accounting
purposes to treat internals as just another customer albeit maybe with a
discount. Its very common within large corporates to pay other entities within
the corporation for services and goods, and even to loan each other money at
some interest rate and a repayment agreement.

Its also often how internal cost centers within a company justify their
existence, by charging the teams that use their services. I've worked in
places where it is not possible to get anyone not on your team to do anything
unless you can provide an internal cost code to charge to.

~~~
raxxorrax
True, but I still doubt that ad costs are any factor for a project like this
or any Google project.

As for Stadia, I play games from time to time but it wouldn't have those I
like most and I also like to own media, so it isn't really too interesting. I
still think it will be a niche product.

Enthusiasts probably won't switch and for the casual market you probably go
with a reduced palette of games. Although that might depend on contracts
Google can make with developers.

------
Fire-Dragon-DoL
I can't try it due to the drastically reduced catalog.

This in my view is the biggest problem.

~~~
d0gbread
You can still try it, if you'd like to.

~~~
Fire-Dragon-DoL
True, let me rephrase:

The drastically reduced catalog makes it currently unattractive to a heavy
gamer. Granted that this is very subjective.

My taste is very complicated, so it's of course my own problem, but the number
of titles is indeed very restricted.

~~~
d0gbread
It's definitely light but improving every month, not unlike any new system. I
do hope the trend continues -- as a Switch owner that isn't a heavy gamer, I
appreciate it as a supplement since I'm not going to buy another system for a
few games the Switch can't handle.

Right now I do think it's clear that the rave reviews are coming from casual
gamers.

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Apocryphon
Streaming gaming doesn't seem to be dead, because aside from the Stadia,
Nvidia has been quietly offering the GeForce Now service, which has been a
decent competitor.

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29athrowaway
The people that spend the most in games care more about responsiveness and
graphics quality. Both aspects suffer when you stream a game.

If you do a side-to-side comparison between Stadia and a console or PC you can
notice some graphics artifacts and there can be input lag.

Then, the reviews have not been favourable enough for people to become
interested. Favourable reviews have been always an important factor in games.

I have used Steam Link for streaming games locally, here at home, and it's not
the same as playing it directly on my PC. With Stadia perhaps it's similar.

~~~
Kaze404
Steam in home streaming is my new favorite thing. I use it to play PC games on
my Nintendo Switch (with homebrew Android), on my phone, and even on my TV. As
long as it's not something that requires mouse input the latency is
unnoticeable for me.

The best part is that it just works. I can, simultaneously, stream the game to
my TV, and stream input from my Bluetooth connected Dualshock 4 from my phone
to the PC, running a game through Proton/Wine. There are so many moving parts
at play and yet they all work perfectly, with zero fiddling.

~~~
29athrowaway
Right, but in the case of Stadia, the "console" is cloud-based. So you need
very good internet connectivity to have a decent gaming experience.

~~~
drusepth
Stadia Pro has a few months free right now and I'd recommend checking it out
if you haven't already. It doesn't take much more than 20-25mbps down to have
a good experience, but I have a lot more than that (750mbps) and the input lag
/ visuals seem pretty identical to my console.

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lihan
I will be waiting this in Australia forever. Right now the COVID-19 is over so
this isn’t relevant.

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raywu
It has not cross platform with Steam, which kind of sucks. I cannot play with
friends that are not on Stadia.

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dig6x
Read on a business insider article "$130 for access to a game store – a game
store largely filled with games that are already available on other platforms,
sometimes for less money – is a hard sell." Seems like Google just chucking
resources at a "hot" industry... was definitely getting backlash a few months
post launch

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dbcooper
Anyone play turn based 4X games on Stadia? Seems like a good use case.

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perrohunter
The games I’d play are not on stadia

