Discover Stadia, Google's Cloud Gaming Solution That Punch a Lot

Announced in June of this year, Stadia is Google’s proprietary cloud gaming service, that lets you stream video games on all of your devices. But what exactly is it? How does it Work and what games will be available? I compiled all that you should know on Stadia below. Together, let’s discover why services like Stadia have their importance in the video game industry.

The technology giant has finally taken a big leap, diving into the video game industry. According to Google, Stadia will offer a “state-of-the-art” video gaming experience, with its incredible network of servers dispersed around the globe. Just like you can stream shows and movies on Netflix, Google Stadia lets you “stream” video games on your devices. As explained in more detail in this blog post, while the images are transmitted to your devices, the graphics processing is simultaneously transferred to remote servers that run these games. Hence, we can play the most sophisticated games with the least powerful machines, since it is the servers that take care of all of the computing.

But what do you need in other to play with Stadia? Nothing that you do not already have: a computer (with Chrome browser), a box with a TV, a smartphone or a tablet, and most importantly, an internet connection. You can buy an additional Stadia controller (which needs to be connected by WiFi to your device), or you can use an HID-compliant controller (DualShock4, Xbox Controller, etc Google assures more controllers will be made compatible). If you, however, want to play on your TV, a Chromecast Ultra will be needed in addition to the Stadia Controller.

Not the "Netflix of video games"

With Stadia, Google wants to make video games available to more people. That is why with Stadia, no game console is necessary, all you need is to buy the games -- the base version of Stadia is free to use. This gives you a max resolution of 1080p and stereo sounds on your games. Also, a Pro version is available which lets you play at 4K and 60FPS. But what makes the Pro version interesting is the ability to add one free game to your collection each month. But beware, If you stop the subscription, you lose access to these games, and if you resume, you will not have access to the games that were offered during the period you terminated. Hence, you would have understood it, Stadia is very different from a "Netflix" subscription that offers access to a catalog of dozens of content from the first day. Stadia Pro is not "the Netflix of the video game" as we are fund to put it. It is much more similar to Xbox Live Gold, or PlayStation Plus as Andrey Doronichev -- Director of Product for Stadia -- puts it.

But such a technologically advanced platform is nothing without good titles. Here is the list of games that will be available on Google Stadia at launch:

• Destiny 2 (the very first game to be available at launch, only on Stadia Pro)
• Baldur’s Gate III
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Ghost Recon Breakpoint
• Gylt
• The Division 2
• Destiny 2 : The Collection
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
• DOOM Eternal
• DOOM
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• Metro Exodus
• Thumper
• GRID
• Samurai Shodown
• Football Manager 2020
• The Elder Scrolls Online
• The Crew 2
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Trials Rising
• NBA 2K
• Borderlands 3
• Farming Simulator 19
• Rage 2
• Final Fantasy XV
• Tomb Raider Trilogy
• Darksiders Genesis
• Just Dance 2020

Besides, during the E3, several developers have announced the arrival of their future games on Google Stadia, after the launch of the platform:

• Gods & Monsters (Ubisoft Quebec, 25 février 2020)
• Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft Toronto, 6 mars 2020)
• Avengers (Crystal Dynamics, 15 May 2020)
• Get Packed (Coatsink Software, en 2020)

In addition to all these games, Ubisoft announced the availability of its UPlay + subscription on Stadia in 2020. With this package of 15 euros per month, it will be possible to access a large part of the publisher's catalog, including the latest news. Indeed, the CEO of Ubisoft -- Yves Guillemot -- announced that carrying their games to Stadia isn’t that expensive, though that only concerns games of this generation. Similarly, Indies confirmed that porting/creating games to/for Stadia won't change much to their workflow.

«The extra costs to make sure our games work well on Stadia are not that high. It's now part of our way of working and we have good relations with Stadia to make sure it's profitable for us.»

Among other features announced for Stadia, we have:

• Availability of takeout data recovery. You will be able to export your saved games from Stadia, as well as to import saved games from other platforms to Stadia.
• Support of Social, Communications, and Safety features. You’ll be able to manage your friends' list, create parties and use platform-level voice chat at launch.
• Support for success is expected but will come after launch
• The system interface will be unveiled in November at the launch
• Family sharing will be proposed at the beginning of 2020, after the launch
• Availability of cross-play and cross-progression on “some” games.

Not as flawless as PC/consoles

However, though cloud gaming eliminates processing power barriers, it replaces it with internet bandwidth barriers. Despite the similarities between cloud gaming and traditional streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, they remain very dissimilar. Bear in mind that cloud gaming is “real-time streaming”, against buffered streaming for YouTube for example, as one Reddit user explains. On YouTube, videos are downloaded a couple of minutes ahead of time so if the connection bandwidth is fluctuating then the video bandwidth averages out. When latency has to be minimized, bandwidth can't average out like that so video quality can go up and down much more. It's more akin to a video call over Skype, which has similar latency constraints.

At this game, Google has had to prove the efficiency of Stadia. It was therefore at the E3 2019 that Google invited some media to test DOOM Eternal on Stadia. This is a Fast FPS where hesitation and lag have no place. It is obvious that if you can play DOOM Eternal, you can play any games. The game ran on a wired Pixelbook. The server, however, was located in San Francisco, more than 600 km away as reported by FrAndroid, no question of cheating with a local server. LeFigaro.fr which was present reported that "during our game, all orders have responded perfectly, as with a classic game console." TheVerge confirms, stating that "if you hadn't told me I was streaming a video game on the Internet, I would not have been able to figure it out".

But Stadia is still far from the quality offered by PC/console. Le Figaro continues by saying that: "Google's service is not as graphically efficient. Visually this is clearly not as fine and beautiful as on PC / consoles ». Numerama holds a similar speech: "Not only the 60 fps seem utopian but, as a bonus, there have been slowdowns from time to time - by luck without consequence". For its part, Gameblog.fr states that the input lag is perfectly managed, but reproaches the game to show "a certain inconsistency with regard to the stability of its frame-rate" and that, even worse, "some textures will take a lot longer than others to load [...], the concern is that the gameplay is changed somewhat since the roulette that allows you to choose your weapon, at times, did not appear at all despite my repeated presses". The Verge also notices some small technical problems that can be similar to simple bugs, but which are disabling for those who wish to play in perfect conditions. Only Ars Technica seems to have noticed "no video compression artifact or color gradient that you might see in a low-resolution YouTube video".

But the real issue is...

Though Stadia supports a range of internet speeds, a bandwidth of 5Mbp/s is the absolute minimum to play in decent conditions.

If Google has been able to somehow make games run smoothly on stadia, it doesn't mean stadia runs on any connexion. Remember that you are streaming images in real-time, hence a certain bandwidth will be required for the best experience. Google advise having at least a 10Mb/s bandwidth to play decently. Hence 4G will be your best bet. No question of playing on WiFi, prioritize ADSL, or even better, fiber optic. 

Comparison of network speed between MTN's (left) and Orange's (right) 4G networks -- Cameroon's leading network operators. Stadia is sure to run on Orange's network.

But the current record of Google remains mixed, since its best asset is the technical part and that it is not exceptional. Compared to competing services, especially xCloud, Stadia seems a little behind. So hard to convince with a catalog of games that does not yet spark dreams. Speaking of which, Google will hold a new conference for Stadia (StadiaConnect) just before the Gamescom (19th of August). Google promises to unveil new titles and show us behind the scenes of some developers.

«The greatest thing about Stadia and cloud gaming is that it will keep improving. We can push new features and iterate based on your feedback, but you don’t have to download updates or upgrade the hardware!»

For now, Google Stadia will only be available on a few selected devices. As Andrey Doronochev explains: «My dream is to play Stadia on every device out there. At launch we’re starting with the devices we know best, to make sure the experience is great. Hence Chrome, Chromecast, and Pixel. Once we harden the tech and it’s ready to scale we’ll expand to more devices starting with the most popular ones». Hence starting 2020, we may have more options on which to play Stadia. As for the games’ prices, we may not expect anything different from what is already practiced: «You should expect game prices to be competitive with other platforms. After all, it’s about developers making money off the amazing work they do». As of now, you can pre-order Stadia's Founder's Edition pack (comprising of a Stadia Pro subscription + a limited edition Blue Night Stadia Controller). One thing however that preoccupies some is the longevity of Stadia. Google has been known to launch services and then derelict and ultimately terminate them, as was the case for Hangout, Google+ and probably YouTube Music. However, even on this, Google wants to reassure: «The greatest thing about Stadia and cloud gaming is that it will keep improving. We can push new features and iterate based on your feedback, but you don’t have to download updates or upgrade the hardware!»

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