Stadia: The Future of Mobile Gaming?

gs
  • New announcement on Google’s Stadia – a cloud gaming solution
  • Leaked pricing and structure

We’ve discussed before (in our article on Samsung & Hatch teaming up) how the future of mobile gaming might exist in the cloud, instead of on your phone. Well, today marks another interesting part of that journey.

Samsung, In Partnership with Hatch, Team Up for Revolutionary 5G Gaming Experience

Google has been working on a product called Stadia – a subscription-based cloud gaming solution. Let’s call it Netflix for video games. The goal is to seamlessly integrate your gaming experience across any device with a screen, without pushing that device to the processing and graphics limits (because all the heavy lifting is done in the cloud and just transmitted like a Netflix video back to you).

Today, Stadia will be announcing more details on this upcoming video game streaming platform at 12 PM Eastern Time – live on YouTube. But it appears some of the information was too hard to keep locked down.

We’ve heard a few reports about the leaks – and we have no source in the matter so we have no way to confirm or deny their truthfulness – though we do believe they are likely correct. Here’s what we’ve heard so far (and again – this could be incorrect as we have not been able to validate it)

  • The launch is scheduled for November of this year (we’d heard earlier that the plan was to release this year so this is in line with that leak)
  • Founders edition will be available for $169 beginning today (theoretically after the live announcement)
  • Founders edition would include the gamepad (needed for faster communication direct to the server), a Chromecast Ultra, Destiny 2, and 3 months of subscription.
  • The monthly subscription cost would be 11.99 per month and would include streaming up to 4k/60 fps
  • The subscription is more similar to Audible than Netflix – where you get a package of some 30 or so titles for free, then pay to purchase new titles.
  • If you cancel your subscription, you keep any purchased titles and access to Stadia – you just lose the ability to purchase new ones and play the free games
  • Chromecast is required to play for initial release – through 2020 it’ll work through any google device/google chrome browser
  • A few titles mentioned in the “available at initial release” include Destiny 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, The Division 2, DOOM, all three Tomb Raider games and more.
  • Minimal requirements for playing are 10 Mbps download and 1mbps upload with 35mbps required to reach full 4k streaming.

There are three major contenders in the cloud gaming space that will all be releasing products in the next year or two. Amazon has a product that it is working on for potential release in 2020. And Microsoft has a product they’re pushing to release in 2019 as well. Whatever the results, Stadia should be expanding to work on all devices, allowing seamless transition from your 20-year-old computer, to your mobile phone, to your 4k TV, all while playing the same game instance.

And while the capacity to do so seamlessly and to perform on the cloud as well as we’ve come to expect on our phones is still in question, it certainly seems like a great idea to be able to play major console games direct on your mobile phone. I, for one, am excited at the prospect of that type of future.

Google Stadia Website

Author(s)

Musician, Author, World-Traveler, Pet-Enthusiast, Still probably has a level 70 Fire Mage in WoW, and writer for GamePress. What else is there to know?

Comments