Shadowhasitsownhardware,namelytheShadowGhost.absence in project leader Phil
Harrison’s presentation at GDC
- Predictably, Apple revealed
its own competing service – Apple
Arcade – not long after. Details are
thin on the ground, but Arcade
seems to have more of a focus on
mobile gaming than Stadia.
What sets Stadia apart is its
controller. The Stadia gamepad
should be familiar to anyone who’s
handled any home console
controller, connecting directly to
your home Wi-Fi to cut out some
of the latency issues that come
with traditional controllers, which
need to send input data through a
local device first. The controller
also comes with an integrated mic,
plus buttons for Google Assistant
and video capture. The controller
doesn’t have a catchy, Google-
themed name yet, but we wouldn’t
be surprised – especially as it’s the
only piece of new hardware you
need to buy to get playing.
StadPad? Google Croissant? You
can have those for free, Google.
Uncertain future
Stadia is about nine months away
from commercial release, but there
seems to be an incredible number
of unknowns around it. Streaming-
based gaming services are not, in
broad terms, aimed at PC gamers.
Console gamers are more likely to
benefit; home consoles are
expensive, borderline impossible
to upgrade, and most now come
with their own subscription-based
services for online play. Games
themselves, too, are becoming
costlier, particularly for current-gen
consoles. Streaming solutions like
Stadia could banish all of these
expenses, but they come with their
own costs. An Internet connection
capable of supporting the service
results in a price tag that isn’t
exactly small.
Will Google offset the prices
with ads? Will there be a
subscription service – and if so,
will there be free and premium
versions? How much will the
controller cost? There are so many
uncertain variables surrounding
the Stadia, it’s difficult to gauge
whether it will soar higher than
any platform before it, or crash
out OnLive-style. The phrase
“Netflix of games” is bandied
around a lot, but is that really what
gamers want? “YouTube of games”
might be more appropriate; theCloud and proud
A quick Google search for “failed game
streaming services” rather damningly
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It wasn’t the only one to fall in the face of
traditional downloads and physical
copies, though. Gaikai’s tech might have
gone on to form a powerful baseline for
PlayStation Now, but its original service
failed to gain much momentum.
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Shinra lasted less than two years before it
admitted defeat and shut it down,
resulting in a loss of more than $16
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ether. If you’ve heard of InstantAction or
GameFly, congratulations – you’ve been
paying more attention than most.
GeForce Now, Nvidia’s attempt at a
cloud gaming platform, has been in an
open beta state for months now. It allows
users access to a server-hosted Windows
environment running powerful GeForce
graphics, where they can install and play
games they already own from digital
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nifty, it doesn’t push the boundaries of
what cloud gaming is capable of,
and seeing its competitor AMD cozying
up with Google for Stadia must be
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2 ne platform that has seen some real
success is Shadow – a service comparable
to GeForce Now that sees users
connecting to a dedicated machine in
one of Shadow’s data centers, then using
that machine to play games they already
own in up to 4K 60fps, with multiplatform
support available. Shadow has received
acclaim from gamers (even a professional
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regarding the quality of the service, but it
demands 15Mb/s or faster Internet, and
comes with an eye-watering $35 a month
price tag – on top of the cost of the
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count, no matter how much you enjoyed
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.Cloud gaming solutions use beefy data centres to run games.Online shooters struggle the most on cloud gaming platforms.
Technology
Cloud gaming
August 2019 | |^61