Google has unveiled their latest project entitled Stadia, which aims to stream high end video games across various platforms.
Unveiled on March 19, technology powerhouse and household name, Google, announced its new and ambitious project- Stadia, a streaming service aimed not at the movie or television markets, but the virtually untouched market of video game streaming.
This concept, originally named Project Stream and Project Yeti, aims to eliminate a physical platform for gaming but instead provide a cloud-based platform for users across any device to stream high-end AAA video games and more.
As the first beta testers this year at the 2019 Game Developers Conference got their hands on Stadia, here’s what to expect for what Google has coined as their revolutionary “Netflix for video games” device.
Stadia is accessed through means of Google’s Chrome and Chromecast interface to instantly stream on an Android device, tablet, computer, and television. In addition, provided is a single Stadia controller that is operated through a wireless Internet connection, rather than Bluetooth connectivity. This coincides with Google’s goal of using the Internet as a focal point and moving away from a reliance on any other external accessories for Stadia.
According to Phil Harrison, Vice President of Google, and the Head of Google Stadia, stated in an interview with Managing Editor Maddy Myers of Kotaku Split screen that, “an Xbox controller won’t do the trick: In order to reach our Chromecast, you need the Stadia controller. You can use whatever USB controller you want on PC, though.”
To receive the most responsive experience out of your game play, Google states that due to its cloud infrastructure and server locations in populated areas, the Stadia controller is the best option for an owner of Stadia. However, for those not fortunate enough to be in a region of great Internet connectivity there is still hope as “Google is addressing part of this by connecting its Stadia controller directly to the server you’re playing on over Wi-Fi, but it has no control over the thousands of ISPs and how they route traffic to its data centers” according to writer Tom Warren of The Verge.
Stadia goes further than just being a function of Chrome but instead it’s also being overseen by Youtube as well. Their co-integration is to include those who enjoy watching live streams and then integrate the usage of instant clipping, or creating clips of video game footage that’ll be uploaded to Youtube.
The biggest concern revolving around the release of Stadia, which has not been announced as of yet, is the issue of latency, or the delay between the transferring of data. It is said that Stadia at launch will be capable of video quality up to 4K resolution, with expectations even reaching 8K in the future. Where the debate starts how strong is the connection in each household. Google is recommending a connection of at least “25 mbps” to achieve 1080P at 60 Frames Per Second.