3 ms·

Depends if you mean the product or the tech. As a product I agree Stadia was dead on arrival, there was no chance people were going to buy games again on a bra

by morbia 4y ago

Depends if you mean the product or the tech. As a product I agree Stadia was dead on arrival, there was no chance people were going to buy games again on a brand new platform at full price with the potential for a poor experience every time your wifi flaked a bit. The tech behind it though I find fascinating. I would love to have the ability to stream my games to a chromecast that I can attach to my TV downstairs, or take with me travelling. Most of the games I play aren't fast paced so the odd latency blip for the convenience wouldn't bother me personally. I think the way google should have played it is gotten into bed with Valve. I feel like there is a market fit for steam link without the local streaming faff. Use google's infrastructure to stream your back catalogue of steam games for $XX/month, maybe throw in the odd free game like the game pass and I can see it gaining some traction. Certainly it would have more chance of success than going in to a mature market solo.

TechnoWomble 4y ago
It’s always going to a substandard experience for latency sensitive games. Can’t change physics. I don’t see the problem with owning a physical machine for your back catalogue. There’s no real problems there that aren’t created by greedy companies.
- morbia 4y ago
  > It’s always going to a substandard experience for latency sensitive games. Can’t change physics. Couldn't agree more, but personally I'm old and my days of playing quake or CS1.6 are over so I don't care about latency. I totally understand streaming games is never going to cover all gamers though. > I don’t see the problem with owning a physical machine for your back catalogue. There’s no real problems there that aren’t created by greedy companies. My physical machine isn't in the same room as my TV and is far from portable. Don't get me wrong, this isn't wouldn't be a lifechanging experience for me and I don't see this as a huge gap in the market. However if the tech behind Stadia was going to fit anywhere, leveraging an existing ecosystem felt like the best way.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    Latency isn't just about having a competitive advantage. Playing with high input latency is mentally fatiguing. Apple understands this; that's why they put so much effort into low latency touch controls. Touch control existed before the iphone but it almost always felt like crap until Apple figured out that reducing latency was key. Latency is the difference between merely usable and comfortable.
  - NavinF 4y ago
    > My physical machine isn't in the same room as my TV Fiber DisplayPort cables are pretty cheap these days and can go across the house with 99%ile latency in the microsecond range (0.7ft/ns speed of light in fiber)
- monlockandkey 4y ago
  But it was not a substandard experience. It was pretty flawless. Yes there is latency but it was imperceptible. You got used to it after 5 minutes and then you got sucked into the game, totally forgetting you are STREAMING a game to your machine. The tech is amazing, right on time in fact. The physics works out perfectly. Issue is that they chose Linux rather than Windows. Porting games is a pain.

by morbia 4y ago

TechnoWomble 4y ago

It’s always going to a substandard experience for latency sensitive games. Can’t change physics. I don’t see the problem with owning a physical machine for your back catalogue. There’s no real problems there that aren’t created by greedy companies.

morbia 4y ago
> It’s always going to a substandard experience for latency sensitive games. Can’t change physics. Couldn't agree more, but personally I'm old and my days of playing quake or CS1.6 are over so I don't care about latency. I totally understand streaming games is never going to cover all gamers though. > I don’t see the problem with owning a physical machine for your back catalogue. There’s no real problems there that aren’t created by greedy companies. My physical machine isn't in the same room as my TV and is far from portable. Don't get me wrong, this isn't wouldn't be a lifechanging experience for me and I don't see this as a huge gap in the market. However if the tech behind Stadia was going to fit anywhere, leveraging an existing ecosystem felt like the best way.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Latency isn't just about having a competitive advantage. Playing with high input latency is mentally fatiguing. Apple understands this; that's why they put so much effort into low latency touch controls. Touch control existed before the iphone but it almost always felt like crap until Apple figured out that reducing latency was key. Latency is the difference between merely usable and comfortable.
- NavinF 4y ago
  > My physical machine isn't in the same room as my TV Fiber DisplayPort cables are pretty cheap these days and can go across the house with 99%ile latency in the microsecond range (0.7ft/ns speed of light in fiber)
monlockandkey 4y ago
But it was not a substandard experience. It was pretty flawless. Yes there is latency but it was imperceptible. You got used to it after 5 minutes and then you got sucked into the game, totally forgetting you are STREAMING a game to your machine. The tech is amazing, right on time in fact. The physics works out perfectly. Issue is that they chose Linux rather than Windows. Porting games is a pain.