Oh man. Just off of a call with a certain major company, who is announcing something gaming related next month, that'll be out later this year. I've been NDA'ed to hell, but holy shit people. Holy shit.
Oh man. Just off of a call with a certain major company, who is announcing something gaming related next month, that'll be out later this year. I've been NDA'ed to hell, but holy shit people. Holy shit.
I'm guessing Apple, but...
Nada. It's not exactly a huge secret so if you Google next month and know what event is taking place...you should figure it out, just the scale at which they're launching it is going to be bonkers. Will it succeed? Hopefully. If it does, it's a serious industry changer.
What I saw today regarding their plans is straight bonkers. Again...if it works lol.
This is also awesome (for Switch owners).
https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/02...tles-to-switch
Gearbox is going to have some never before seen reveals at PAX East. Fingers crossed for Borderlands 3
New retro low-poly FPS coming from 3D Realms, using Quake engine tech.
http://www.wrath.game/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1..._Aeon_of_Ruin/
Oh man, F I N A L L Y.
The Left 4 Dead franchise returns with Back 4 Blood
Finally it's announced. Google Stadia
Saw it in action a few weeks ago and it's craaaaazy. Only thing is how restricted the title library will be. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are all basically not cool with it haha.
OK so i have some...reservations shall we say about Googles idea.
I like the idea, it has some great potential, but there are a few stumbling blocks...
1) What internet speed will be required to use it? I'm guessing something quite hefty, which will count me (and a lot of people) right out of the service. My current connection is 30-40mbs, and that is the best i can get (i'm told) where i live, and that can't even use PS Now without it rendering the game unplayable after 20mins, so my guess is this'll need something like 50-100mbs minimum? This would be especially bad if Google starts getting exclusive games, it wouldn't be like "oh i need a new console to play this" it would literally be "well i can't play it unless i move home"...and that's pretty nuts.
EDIT : They have confirmed you'll need a recommended minimum of 25mps for 1080p 60 FPS...which i'm not so sure i believe giving my experience with 30-40mbs and PS Now (it's awful even with PS3 Era games!)
2) How are they going to solve latency issues? I'm hearing (online so it could be bullshit) that there are 1-2 seconds of latency, which on PvP games would be awful, how exactly are Google going to get around this?
3) My issue with all streaming platforms...licenses. I hate giving money to company's to effectively 'rent' music and film, especially when they can just vanish from the service (Tool on Spotify for example, or the countless anime i tried watching on Netflix) Unless the platform owns the content it will be down to a license agreement to be on said platform, and when that agreement comes up for renewal the platform holder might just go "well this wasn't very popular so we won't re-new" This is a pain for music and film, but you can always find ways to find it again...with Games it's a little different. Imagine for example a deep RPG game you have invested 100's of hours into. It's not massively popular but you love it. Now say Google doesn't own the license and it gets to the end of it's contract, google say "not enough people are playing it" and poof, gone. Gone is the game AND all the hours you put in (as well as saves)...that would SUCK!
Again i like the idea, but at the moment my above issues are keeping me from getting excited about it...
Last edited by Haysey_Draws; 03-20-2019 at 07:19 AM. Reason: Question 1 was answered
This is why a lot of PC gamers aren't sold yet. Even a fraction of a second would be a massive deal, and Google hasn't said how bad/good this will be. I suspect this will also come down to each persons connection/provider? Again we probably won't know until some of us get to try it in our own homes, speaking of which...
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2019/03/20/g...-our-questions
When asked about what internet speed you'd need, to get 1080p, 60 frames per second, you'd need approximately 25 megabits per second...which honestly i'm surprised about. BUT that is the minimum recommended connection and just under what i currently get...so all in all there wouldn't be much of an advantage for me moving from console/PC to streaming (i mean PS Now sucks for me but that must just be Sony's end not my connection?)
@Haysey
I echo all those questions and concerns, i saw someone mention how if this were to eventually become the norm that it would basically kill the modding community for future PC games, there's nothing to modify if you aren't given any access to the game files. That and like you said with license expirations and games potentially disappearing from the service after a period of time, what would then happen to preserving older games? the beloved titles due to critical acclaim or cult following? Do they just cease to exist? The gaming industry is bad enough at keeping it's past alive, companies acquiring other companies and ending up with IPs that they don't do anything with. You're lucky to get anything remastered or updated for modern compatibility unless it's from the previous generation and even then.
With Steam a lot of older titles get released digitally in the state they were in when they were first made available and on modern systems these titles are in poor shape and don't function very well out of the box, this is where at least by way of having the files the community can dig in to the code and fix some of the problems. A developer or publisher can grant the release of the source code for a given title and thanks to a dedicated community of gamers you now have a working product that can stand the test of time.
I have to imagine the games that would end up on Google's systems are going to primarily reflect whatever the current gen is at the time because when those titles will continue to come and go and the years keep on flying by, the technology is bound to be upgraded (how often is anyone's guess) and the older games that would run into performance issues would probably have to be run through some sort of emulation, somehow i can't see Google making this big of a commitment unless it really takes off and our other options throw in the towel.
We are in some strange times.
@thelastdisciple i didn't even think of Modding!
My guess is Google want the average console gamer market, people that just want to switch on a box and play, no fuss (thats where the money is!)
And i completely agree, older games will effectively die in this state. Just look at LEGO Lord of the Rings, The Scott Pilgrim Game, P.T. Dead because of licenses/bullshit, BUT if you had a copy you can still enjoy it to this day...that won't happen with this new platform.
It's for that reason i can't see physically owning games will die, modding and continuing to enjoy games will be in a lot of PC gamer's minds and will continue to be a thing.
Also the whole being able to drop into a streamer playing a game has great potential...until they said it was with YouTube Gaming...i honestly thought they'd canned that! Anyone i watched that used it stopped and moved to Twitch a LONG time ago!
I forgot Amazon had been planning something as well...no wonder Google got out of the gate early.
If Amazon offers the chance to stream AND own the game on a platform like they offer with some of their MP3's (where you get the CD in the price) that's be a MASSIVE advantage!
A 25mb speed is required to receive 1080p at 60 fps on the Stadia... yikes.
Also something that us UK plebs have easy, almost all our broadband is unlimited, but i'm hearing many US people don't have unlimited data packages...how is this going to effect you?
If it needs 25mbs min it's safe to say you'll be doing 1.5 gb of data a minute and 90 gb an hour...is that doable with your data pack broadband contracts? Or is this going to lead to stupidly expensive broadband every month (if you can even get 25mbs!)
I know for me personally before i moved there was a few years while on a 15mbit/s connection where my ISP put a data cap on us at 150gb/month and that's something i had to share with others so it got ate up pretty quick... and this was implemented after like 15 years with the same ISP, before then data caps were a completely alien concept to me and something i only thought smartphones were dealing with. I was so pissed off when our plan was changed this way, i had to change the entire way i used the Internet.
Fortunately since i moved i have an unlimited cap again *knock on wood* and also a much higher speed at 50mbit/s after we had fibre lines installed (after actually having WORSE connection speeds for a brief time at 6mbit/s compared to where i lived previously, that was ROUGH)
Vast majority of Xfinity (Comcast) customers = not feasible
Base package ($69.99) is 15 Mbps, but since our infrastructure is shit most places, you get about 1 Mbps - 6 Mbps. There are higher speed options, of course, but everyone is soft-capped at 1 TB of data usage a month. You get two warning months, and then it's $10 per 50 GB used every time after. If you frequently go over cap, they have the right to throttle or terminate your service all together.
Last edited by Jon; 03-21-2019 at 02:15 PM. Reason: I guess you get 2 complimentary overage months now
The more i read into this and hear people talk, the more i'm starting to feel like this isn't going to be "for everyone" like they pitched but just those lucky few with good enough internet and infrastructure to avoid lag/latency...i really can't see this working as a business if (by what people are saying) most people in the US can't even get the basic internet required to us it, and even those that can will have another charge to pay Google on top of an already expensive internet package. Google must be aware of this and have a plan...right?