Game Streaming Services - Stadia, Geforce Now, xCloud, PS Now

Utnayan

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Google and now Microsoft are so out of touch with trying to drive this industry to their infrastructure. With Google it will just bomb completely. With Microsoft it will be another "Lets make the Xbox the heart of the living room" debacle.

NO ONE. And I mean NO ONE, wants Cloud based streaming gaming except these bullshit companies pushing their own agenda. Bandwidth caps do not support it, bandwidth speeds sometimes do not support it, input latency does not support it, gamers simply do NOT want it. Gamepass is a fantastic idea. A subscription for downloadable games to play locally. But that doesn't mean not offering physical choices either. It's why that digital Xbox is falling on it's ass.

MS can quit trying to drive everyone to Azure any day now because they pull the same shit with Teams video interop. They do not care about the customer experience. They just want to own the cloud like they own the Desktop and do not give two shits about the customer experience in their little plight to get there, so it will end up falling on it's ass because they are concentrated on this bullshit instead of making quality games, which is what they SHOULD be concentrating on. They are leveraging the games industry, (and also the collaboration market) as trojan horses to push everyone to Microsoft cloud as a standard - and in the meantime, deliver on horseshit experiences through and through.
 

spronk

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stadia has the potential to be amazing, if they were to invest their time and resources correctly. A battle royale or MMO or that kind of experience with 10,000 players playing in an unsharded environment is something ONLY the cloud gaming infrastructure can do, p2p/server gaming just cannot scale to those levels. Its really bizarre Stadia isn't launching with that kind of game. They should have bought PUBG or DayZ or EA/APEX, spent the last year retooling it, and launch with "This is the way games are played now, you will never want to go back" big dick attitude with 3-4 games that ONLY STADIA CAN DO. Imagine a World of Warcraft classic that has a single shared server and supports infinite number of players or a Team Fortress 2 with a map 30x the current map sizes and everyone who plays is in the same game.

Instead they are coming in with the weakest, tiniest dick just saying "uhh... you like games from 3 years ago, right? Well, now you can play them on your tablet or hotel TV! weeeeee!" like who the fuck is this thing even for right now.
 

Utnayan

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stadia has the potential to be amazing, if they were to invest their time and resources correctly. A battle royale or MMO or that kind of experience with 10,000 players playing in an unsharded environment is something ONLY the cloud gaming infrastructure can do, p2p/server gaming just cannot scale to those levels. Its really bizarre Stadia isn't launching with that kind of game. They should have bought PUBG or DayZ or EA/APEX, spent the last year retooling it, and launch with "This is the way games are played now, you will never want to go back" big dick attitude with 3-4 games that ONLY STADIA CAN DO. Imagine a World of Warcraft classic that has a single shared server and supports infinite number of players or a Team Fortress 2 with a map 30x the current map sizes and everyone who plays is in the same game.

Instead they are coming in with the weakest, tiniest dick just saying "uhh... you like games from 3 years ago, right? Well, now you can play them on your tablet or hotel TV! weeeeee!" like who the fuck is this thing even for right now.

Exactly, which goes right back to my point:

Google and now Microsoft are so out of touch with trying to drive this industry to their infrastructure. With Google it will just bomb completely. With Microsoft it will be another "Lets make the Xbox the heart of the living room" debacle.

The very part of what you said with "If they were to invest their time and resources correctly". They won't. They do not understand the market, they do not understand games - however, they understand that want to own the cloud. As does MS. And they are so fixated on how they are going to do that they are losing sight as to why customers would ever want to move there in the first place which is going to DRIVE that use case.

Monkeys are running these companies I swear. It's common sense from the consumer perspective. Google and Microsoft continue to blow up their own ideas by not seeing the forest for the trees.
 
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spronk

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i think microsoft may be smarter, phil seems super intuitive about gaming and what we want, it just takes forever to turn around a company the size of microsoft. They haven't played any of their cards yet on xCloud, just waiting to see what stadia announces.

I can totally see Microsoft doing something AMAZING with Halo Infinite, the name itself implies it. They signed up ninja, the biggest known streamer, I doubt thats a coincidence -- He was a former Halo pro player too. Halo Infinite with an unsharded server that lets you play in a sort of No Mans Sky universe with PVP battles raging everywhere is something straight up out of Cyberpunk/Ready Player One/etc. I doubt they could get it perfect but hopefully they get it amazing. Play Halo Infinite on any device from phones to consoles to PC to TV, stream where necessary more optimized local play where available, all against an unsharded cloud system that supports any size of play you want from 10v10 to Alterac Valley size 5000 x 5000 battle maps.

I was hoping Google would have an answer to what seems like the obvious move by Microsoft but they seem to be sticking with "you can play Assassins Creed Odyssey on your chromebook!"
 

Utnayan

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So basically we can have all that from an infrastructure stand point with local play integrated into XCloud. We do not need to Stream the game. They can host the multiplayer in Azure and do a ton with it by still giving customers an experience beyond what is the norm today and what you talk about. With that said: Microsoft has no plans for XCloud and Scarlet.


"Having said that, even Spencer isn't convinced it's going to be a big thing for a while:

"I think this is years away from being a mainstream way people play. And I mean years, like years and years."

Ok so I agree with him. Most definitely not a thing nor should it be. We need to address fundamental internet access issues across the globe, along with eliminating bandwidth caps from a federal government level making that illegal. (At least in the US but it should be illegal within the globe) Caps are there from Cable providers to stop cable cord cutting rather than update their service roll outs and compete, and only there to make up lost revenue for their own complacency. And they cannot keep up with it anyway. But bandwidth issues and the technology behind latency and disparate local play is no where close to ready. We barely even have technology out that can support 4k60 HDR with 4:4:4 Chroma due to 2.0 HDMI bandwidth limitations.

The next step here is simple for next gen. 4k60 HDR. Standard. Problem is we will all have to buy new gear to support it :( HDMI 2.1, HDMI 2.1 receiver replacement, and HDMI cabling replacement to support more than 18.2 gb. The next gen console will be an expensive upgrade for the enthusiast who actually wants to take advantage of the power.
 

Folanlron

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We might see the actual start of something near the end of life for us, with mass cloud games.

Issues still come with the fact that games are being charged at full price but after 6-8months when goggle crunches the numbers and realize that, ya we lost money they can just simply unplug the cluster and it's gone. That is my problem with cloud based games right now, it is way too easy for the system provider too just go fuck it were canceling it, just like goggle has done several times over with other projects..

and 10k ? lol if you think any current computer system can handle Apex/DayZ/PubG at 10k users, I got some magical beans you can buy, right after I fire up my Q-bit CPU, it's not currently plausible too push that kind of numbers in a single instance, just way too much going on.

And ya the big problem is, the internet is such a mix of fibre and copper, too many companies selling off access too other companies etc etc, a mass upgrade is gonna have too happen eventually...
 

spronk

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stadia connect goes live in 20 mins (8.19.19, 10am PDT / 1pm EDT) lets hear all the 2 year old games you are gonna pay $60 for each

 

jooka

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Pretty surprised cd projekt red is on board with this. Gives me confidence the service will be good enough.


EDIT the compute power they are gonna be giving ordinary people will be pretty insane.
 
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spronk

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that was, without a doubt, the most bizarre gaming stream from a big company ever. AI lady, trailers for games everyone has already seen, massive hitching and lag. I thought Stadia might last at least 3-4 years but now I wonder if it'll still be here a year from now
 

Ravishing

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A lot of those games I'd be interested in on the TV that I just don't want to sit behind a PC to play.
Cyberpunk, MK11.
Kids would love Farming Simulator 19, and eventually Kill all Orcs if they were a little older.

Farming Sim is probably an insta-buy for the kids, they'll love that shit.
 

meStevo

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Was kinda waiting for the 'we had 500 orcs, now because of Stadia here's a wave with 5000' moment from Orcs Must Die 3.

I'm looking forward to this, but just seems to be a way to play Destiny while pooping and little else. We'll see how flexible and seamless the portability is.
 

spronk

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EA sent out beta invites to its own streaming game service, only 3 games up on it right now - Titanfall 2, an older Need for Speed, and one of the sports games. I played a round of titanfall 2, it was fine visually and FPS, no real input lag or anything (played with controller though not kbm) although it didn't look as crisp as native Origin version, I assume it was streaming at 1080p.

It works, unfortunately there really isn't anything on EA i wanna play and its a bit weird/disappointing they won't test APEX, battlefield 1 or 5 right away. Still interested in Stadia although I still can't figure out who its for (beyond a small niche) and why I'd stay subbed past a month or two.
 

Alex

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I'm interested in this just for the business travel I do. Sometimes I go to shitty places and my company laptop can't run games. But then again, I have a Switch.
 

spronk

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founders edition sold out in europe (not sure USA) being replaced with "premium edition" that is the same but diff controller and doesn't come with buddy pass

SEARzNhuKfhRxpUHlTKgWBv0jjQtznqEdZZIv3ROSK0.jpg


i still have a FE on pre order. Its dumb I know, I'm pretty sure I really won't use it, but for $130 i get a chromecast 4k and a controller I can use anywhere, and a full version of Destiny 2 for 3 months. I won't stay subbed after that (you can play the "free" version in Jan at 1080p) but what the heck, I've wasted way more money on way stupider things.
 

Ravishing

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I have it on preorder as well but mostly for the chromecast, the controller is a bonus, might try the farm game for the kids, idk yet.
 

spronk

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stadia releases in 28 days now i think. this is the launch list of games you can buy (no prices yet, i'd expect close to $60 for all of em) and you get Destiny 2 full collection "free" with a pro sub, which you get 3 months of with the $130 founders package.

t0h6n2vvupt31.png


that honestly has to be the weakest console launch lineup i've ever seen, I think the ouyo had more and newer games.
 

meStevo

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Over 100 titles from UPlay+ are expected to be added, but that's in 2020 sometime. Didn't realize that wasn't a launch thing until just recently.
 

Pyros

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stadia releases in 28 days now i think. this is the launch list of games you can buy (no prices yet, i'd expect close to $60 for all of em) and you get Destiny 2 full collection "free" with a pro sub, which you get 3 months of with the $130 founders package.

t0h6n2vvupt31.png


that honestly has to be the weakest console launch lineup i've ever seen, I think the ouyo had more and newer games.
I mean some of these games are quite good, but for a console launching like 5years into a cycle and only having non exclusives(so far) this is definitely fucking shit. Then again I had no interest in the console to begin with so I don't care too much, I just can't get why someone would invest into this with how shaky it looks and Google's history with failed products. They might not cut it as early as others but you're still most likely buying games you'll lose access to in the future. If you were renting the games that'd be an entirely different proposition but the fact you still need to buy games but don't actually own them seems so weird to me(and yes I know technically Steam is the same but Steam isn't a new project). The only point I can see really is for people to play PC only games without buying a full PC, but that lineup is 90% multiplats.