Google Stadia worth it ?

Ok, so I've done some research on the google stadia gaming system or should I say streaming subscription, now when i first heard about this i thought this was gonna be a real kick in the teeth to XBOX and Play Station however after more research i am thinking not so much, lets examine this further before diving in with our dollars.

First the hardware needed is $129.00 which is great and way cheaper than PS or XBOX but here is the thing, you have to really dig for on the net to find a straight answer on, the games are going to be the same price to access as the PS and XBOX.

Now i have no doubt that the Stadia is going to dominate this coming Christmas because many people are under the impression as i was for a $30 or $40 per month subscription we would have access to all 38 games that are currently available, this is not the case, for the $9.99 per month subscription that you'll pay you will have access to about 4 games if memory serves that honestly i have no interest in.

Of course Google is not shining a light on the fact that to get the 4k quality gaming you need a pretty fast internet speed and before you pass judgment on me complaining just because my internet is slow i live in Chattanooga, Tn where we the fastest internet in the world of 10GB per second so network is not my issue with this.

My issue is that for that $129 your spending on the stadia, you can go to a pawn shop and pick up a PS4 sign up for the free PS network account and have access to dozens of free games at 4k resolution and have a system that does more than just play games and performance that no streaming could ever touch even at the 1gb internet speed im currently paying for.

Now if google was offering 38 games for $29.99 a month and the hardware was $129.99 and had access to there entire games library for that price I would be all in on that.

So i would say to you don't buy into the scam you will not save a dime in the long run and not have near the performance of a game system not to mention the $120.00 per year you'll pay just to have access to Stadia and the free games no one wants to play.

Dont be a sucker buy a used PS4 and wait till next year when the PS5 comes out which will be able to play all the PS4 games you bought all year long and has dozens of free to play games not just 3 or 4, not to mention the fact there are 100's of games you can pick up used for 10 or 20 bucks at game stores all over the country.

It is going to be pricey and the performance will most likely not going to be superb for some time but I still prefer Stadia over consoles and PC+Windows.

I like stadia because it allows me play games on platform I prefer; PC+Linux. Additionally, it uses Vulkan + Linux environment which potentially improves Vulkan API, Linux OS and gives developers more knowledge about Linux environment.

Not worth it with the lineup of launch games they have. Wait and see.

@bonelessspirit: Yeah it seems very much wait and see in terms of what games they get and how good the technology actually is. Maybe they have just figured out streaming games if you have good enough internet. Google is pretty bad for investing hard then pulling out entirely though if it doesn't make business sense. I wonder if this is the latest one of those and it eventually just becomes something more an Apple Arcade type of thing for playing phone games on a TV, etc.

@spacegg: The point you made was a good one if nothing else I hope Stadia makes Linux more main stream, I use Linux on all my computers with the exception of my hard core gaming one and only us windows on it because Linux just is not ready for that, hopefully the stadia system will change that

Don't get me wrong the idea is great but it will need to evolve into some kind of monthly subscription that gives you access to all the games or its not gonna last, without that your just paying the same price for games to run on a far inferior system than one you can pick up at a pawn shop for $150.00

Stadia is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. How many people are really out there not willing to spend money on hardware, yet somehow happy enough to spend $60 on full price games.

Your never getting big triple-A games on a subscription service, Netflix can make a dozen high quality TV show for the price of one triple-A game.

I like what GamePass is doing, as far as being a “Netflix for games” solution.

I think Stadia could have its place, especially with less PCs and more tablets and Chromebooks out there, but I’m very much in the wait and see camp.

I guess my biggest concern is about keeping your library. Google has cut and run before, so it would be good to know that Steam, GOG, or whatever would be there as a safety net.

As far as performance goes Stadia totally works if the Assassin's Creed test was any indication, it worked on my fairly mid-range connection.

I don't really know what their doing with their service, and game library stuff - that stuff still seems flaky to me.

@thepanzini said:

Microsoft's had their big titles like Gears 5 and Forza Horizon on Game Pass and you've been able to play a lot of big AAA games from EA and Ubisoft's services. Also, you're really underestimating how much those TV shows cost.

I do agree with your sentiment tho.

I find it hard to gauge how the mainstream will react to this. Will they be like 'woah, there's this button on youtube now and all i need is a controller + the game and it will play on my 2013 laptop? I'm going to do that right away!' or will they be like 'hmm.. if i wanted to play games i would've bought a console already' and ignore stadia? I think that's the crowd that will ultimately decide if this is going to be successful, not the people that are already way into games.

No, the service should be free if you have to buy the games since it is just streaming anyway. Then once their servers eventually go away, your games are gone forever.

They're rolling out a free tier next year. It'll be limited to 1080p and stereo sound, though.

Buying games on Stadia early on definitely seems like a risk, but if they do shut the doors I'd be shocked if they didn't at least offer Steam codes for the games you own.

that would be better, but honestly this should just be a streaming service with a set of games for a monthly fee like game pass, ps now etc etc.

Or throw in an option to download and play locally.

and I forgot about the 1080p thing, completely defeats the point of streaming for me, which would be 60fps at 4k especially if I am paying full price anyway. But my pc can get good fps at 1080p max already.

I'm curious what kind of content Google is going to allow on their platform - especially if they're going to lock away certain content based on whether you're a subscriber or a freeloader. Typically on other platforms they don't lose money by selling you a product. With Stadia, they absolutely can (imagine if they sold clickers/incremental games for a few bucks and everyone just left it running!)

I think much like xbox's games service it will have hate or misunderstandings till it comes out and does well. I think we game enthusiast are a small bucket compared to those outside this echo chamber we formed. We think people mostly have ps4 plus or some beefy pc but most do not. Having a way to play high settings games with a bit of lag will be fine for many. I never notice lag or think its that bad since i grew up forced to laptop game. You get use to it and for a cheap price many will like the benefits of just pop in and play (no disk, settings, updates, etc.) PS4 and Xbox didnt start working together cause they had nothing to fear.

@pcmusicer: Stadia is far from perfect but I think it is still better option than installing Windows or buying a console. It is definitely welcomed as an alternative way to play games; grand strategies, etc. could work nicely on a tablet.

Linux gaming has took huge steps forward thanks to Valve (+Wine team), developers who releases their games for it and companies like Feral Interactive. Of course all the open source developers who has made this possible in the first place (AMD has great open source drivers).

People usually calls CDPR, Larian, etc. as "good guys" but I personally think developers who are pushing PC gaming towards openness are truly the good guys. DRM-freedom on closed system is not a huge win in my book.