APRIL 2 020 T3 61Game streaming showdown
GOOGLE STADIA
The Google Stadia Premiere Edition includes one of the Wi-Fi-enabled Stadia
controllers plus a Chromecast Ultra for getting the games on your TV
s there a more web-savvy company in the
world than Google? Doubtful. Its connected-
tech know-how, and long-established
experience in cloud-based software, should
make it expertly placed to lead the pack in cloud gaming.
But its initial offering with Stadia has some way to go to
meet the company’s early promises on the service.
First, what does Stadia get right? For starters, it
works well across platforms, streaming to a TV over
a Chromecast Ultra dongle, working on a Mac or PC
browser, and running AAA games from the cloud to select
Pixel Android mobile devices. It’s also the only service on
test running at 4K resolution (using a Chromecast Ultra
on TV) with high dynamic range (HDR) options enabled,
and uses a potentially innovative controller that aims to
reduce lag and latency by connecting directly to cloud
servers over Wi-Fi. Providing you meet the minimum
broadband requirements, it’s a smooth and stable
experience, and one that transitions well from device to
device. Visually, it’s comparable to a native, local gaming
experience (if not quite of the fidelity of the high-end,
newer home consoles), and though control can feel a tad
sluggish, it’s perfectly playable.
But there’s a lot missing too from Stadia’s lengthy,
initially pitched feature list, from in-game GoogleI
While the games it offers
are top notch, they
number too few right now
Assistant guides to wider phone support. At present,
these features are missing in action, and while some have
always seemed optimistic at best, many were the key
defining features that looked set to separate Google from
the competition. In their absence, it feels like a beta test- a solid base technically, with a well-presented UI, but
all together merely a foundation awaiting the flourishes
to make it stand out.
What’s more, while the games it offers are top notch
and the streams stable, they number too few for the time
being, and the pricing structure is steep. The unique
potential of the lag-reducing controller, with its dedicated
Google Assistant button, hasn’t been met – lag is still
present, and the Assistant button is currently all but
useless. And while 4K resolutions are hit, some titles don’t
seem to be achieving the detailed visual heights of their
console and PC counterparts.
Revisit Google Stadia in a year or two and it may be a
different story. But for now, Google Stadia feels more like
a vision of the future, rather than a present reality.
STADIA
PRODUCT 01:
Google has the web-based tech know-
how, but does it have the games?