Tag: Stadia

Google Stadia Will Need A 20Mbps Connection For 1080p Gaming

Earlier this year, Google surprised the world by unveiling a dedicated gaming platform dubbed Stadia. The platform will allow users to play high end games on max visual settings without shelling out money for buying new high end hardware. Any device that can run Chrome browser can be used to play the said high end games with the help of Stadia services. Talking about the functionality of the service, the computing power required to run graphics intensive games will take place remotely in Google’s data centres which will be streamed directly on to the Chrome browser running on the user’s machine. Even though Google has done away with the need for high end processing power with Stadia, the dependence on high speed remains. In fact with the new service, not only is the essential game data transferred over the internet, the HD game stream itself is transmitted online.

In order to make sure, the users are able to smoothly play games on Stadia, Google has revealed minimum internet speeds required to stream games in different video quality. The data sheet is attached below:

To enjoy games in the highest available video quality and 5.1 surround sound, it requires an internet connection with 35 Mbps transfer speeds. According to data collected by contributors on Speedtest, the average download speed in the United States was higher than 35 Mbps in the year 2018. Therefore, the maximum number of users hailing from the country can use the Stadia service at its maximum available quality. However, in countries like India, where the internet quality is not at par with some of the developed countries, users might be limited to using the service at 720p or 1080p quality.

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Conclusively, only time will tell what the future holds for the hyped up gaming service from Google which is set to roll out later this year. Also, Sony and Microsoft have teamed up for a similar game streaming service which will compete against Google Stadia. Interested readers can find the pricing of Stadia service here.

Users can check their internet speeds by visiting www.speedtest.net or www.fast.com.

June 13, 2019
Google Stadia Price And Launch Date Revealed

Google, ahead of the gaming expo E3 2019, has unveiled the details for its new game streaming service. The company’s announcement in March for Google Stadia had left out many of the finer details that have since been disclosed. Google will directly compete with companies like Sony and Microsoft, that are suddenly dealing with a new platform that had no hardware limitations, in the widely popular and ever-growing cloud based gaming market.

Google Stadia is confirmed to launch in November 2019. 14 regions will be in the first wave of countries to receive the game streaming service, such as the US and Canada. 31 games from 21 different publishers will be available at the initial launch with the “Founder’s Edition”. The special edition will cost $130 (approx. Rs.9,000) for a hardware starter kit (bundling a $70 or Rs.4,000 controller) with 3 months of premium service, and a $10/per month (approx. Rs.700) after the complimentary period ends.

The company has only announced the pricing of one tier in Google Stadia’s subscription options. Stadia Pro that is priced at $99.9 (approx. Rs.7,000) will offer 4K gaming at 60fps streaming with HDR and 5.1 surround sound. This pack requires a stable 35Mbps of bandwidth connectivity. Google Stadia promises more games in its free category alongside exclusive discounts on games. A Standard edition is being prepared as well, with no details given on that version, more information might be revealed at E3 2019.

Google is also planning a separate free tier that will be seen sometime in 2020. Pre-orders for the “Founder’s Edition” of Google Stadia are now open in 14 countries that receive the service first. The quality of this service is yet to be determined in the real world since Stadia has only been seen in action under controlled environments. Stadia should not be grouped with services like Netflix, in which users pay a monthly subscription and watch movies or a series. Google only offers a platform in which users can buy the games that they wish to play, along with a monthly fee for the online service. The only game that comes free with just the subscription is Destiny 2 by Blizzard-Activision, as of right now.

Google Stadia in practice is closer in resemblance to Steam, the digital game store by Valve. Apart from the 31 game titles at launch, like Mortal Kombat 11 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, more games will be added eventually along the way. However, it is still unclear if Google Stadia will be a host for games developed exclusively for the platform. Notably, the $130 price tag for early buyers is still a cheaper alternative to any gaming console currently available in the market, namely PS4 and Xbox One. Google is currently bundling the Chromecast Ultra that plugs into TVs with a limited-edition dark blue version of Stadia’s controller.

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The cross-platform streaming of games from Xbox allows users to play on any PC, Pixel 3 or 3a device (Google plans on supporting more smartphones soon) or Chromecast TVs. Google Stadia has led Microsoft and Sony to develop their own game streaming services such as xCloud and PlayStation Now respectively. A move just to stay relevant in the market and in the future. With the advent of network advancements like 5G, digital media is growing at an ever-increasing pace.

June 7, 2019
Google Stadia’s Viability, What Resources Does The Cloud Gaming Service Need?

Google Stadia was the talk of the town at the GDC 2019, where the company brought the concept of hardware-independent gaming to life. The service will enable gamers to live-stream games directly to their browser from the Google datacenters, eliminating the need for high-end hardware to run a graphics intensive game. The company also announced its Stadia controller at the event, which looks like a hybrid of the Microsoft Xbox and the Sony PS4 controller. But the major speculation surrounding the devices remains whether average Internet connections can sustain Stadia’s capability or not. If not, then what is the future of Stadia?

Connection Speeds

Earlier, Google Stadia’s Executive stated that players will have to be equipped with a 25 Mbps internet connection in order to stream games at 4K resolution and 60 fps (frames per second). The actual consumption of bandwidth is lower, but Google recommends the aforementioned speed in order to boost performance. At a lower bandwidth, players may face issues with resolution and fps while streaming the game.

The average internet speeds in India are about 6.5 Mbps, whereas the peak connection speeds average at 41.4 Mbps. A lot of users prefer mobile internet in the country, which can give high speeds but at the same time, users may face issues with packet losses and data polling, adversely affecting the “Stadia” experience. The best bet would be using a broadband connection (preferably an optical fibre connection) in order to preserve internet speeds while not losing any data packets at the same time.

Since the Stadia controller connects directly via WiFi to the datacenter where the game is running, a high peak speed connection would fare well while playing a game that requires multiple responses to be sent over the internet in a short period of time. Although users can make use of Keyboards and mice too, Google emphasized that the Stadia controller provides enhanced compatibility with the Stadia ecosystem. Gamers who want to play a specific game on their TVs can use Chromecast to stream the game. Similarly, gamers can stream the game via the Google Chrome Browser on their laptops/desktops.

Availability

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Unfortunately, Google will launch Stadia in India much later than UK, Europe, US and Canada. Furthermore, Google hasn’t unveiled its pricing for the same, but it has confirmed that the customers will be notified regarding the payment plans somewhere around the month of July.

March 25, 2019
Google Unveils Stadia Cloud Gaming Platform And GamePad At GDC 2019

At a much-awaited event on March 19, Google launched a cloud gaming platform at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which is named Stadia. Hints were being dropped by the company previously which had indicated that the company wants to enter the US$ 140 billion gaming industry. The newly launched platform will allow gamers to stream their games to all types of devices, including Chrome, Chromecasts and other Pixel devices.

What Is Stadia?

Stadia will launch in the latter part of 2019, with only four major countries targeted as of now: UK, Canada, US and Europe. The company will take advantage of the huge viewer base of Youtube to help improve Stadia and mainstream the service into streaming and gaming. Gamers will be able to play any game they want directly from Google’s data centres, without actually downloading the game. According to the company, it has successfully tested the high resource-demanding Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on Chrome Streaming with flawless results.

Google’s new platform is not limited to a single game, rather, players will be able to purchase games from a variety of stores affiliated with it. Amongst other interesting features, Stadia will allow users to share gaming clips from their favourite moments during the gameplay which other users can just click on the game to instantly play it. The platform makes use of Virtualization and Advanced Cloud computing to make this possible.

As mentioned previously, the games will be streamable across a multitude of devices. Laptops, desktops, TVs and smartphones will be able to run the games without any glitches, Google says. Moreover, the company claims that the gameplay can be transferred “seamlessly” across various Google devices as well. Of course, latency and data centre availability will play a huge role in keeping the experience smooth and stutter-free.

The Stadia Controller

Following the software, Google also launched its new controller, known as the Stadia Controller. The controller sports Google’s signature minimalistic design and connects directly via Wi-Fi to the game that the user is playing, not to the device he/she’s playing it on. Google states that by doing so, it will eliminate response delays between the hardware and the software, thereby ensuring lag-free gameplay.

The controller also features a “Google Assistant” button, which lets users pull up the voice assistant during the game itself and ask it relevant questions. For instance, if the gamer is stuck on a level and needs some help, he/she can directly ask the assistant regarding the level and get instant tips to complete it. The other special button on the controller is the Capture button, which lets the user capture a screenshot or a gameplay video for personal use or sharing purposes.

Google Data Centres

Regarding computing, Google stated that it is continuously updating its Data Centres for better ping across all areas. Gamers were ecstatic when the company announced that upon launch, Stadia will support 4K games at 60 fps, with support for 8K/120 fps in the future. For achieving this milestone, Google will partner with AMD to build custom GPUs which will deliver 10.7 TeraFlops of power to each machine. Each module of Stadia will run on a 2.7 GHz x86 processor with 16 GB of RAM. Furthermore, Google also announced that one of the first games supported by Stadia would be Doom: Eternal, which is a first-person shooter with a huge fanbase.

Other Features

It also includes support for cross-play, where gamers can play the same game across different platforms. Stadia offers game developers a chance to use its machine-learning based transfer tool, which will let developers drop an image into each frame of the video/game to transform the entire game into the image’s style. Moreover, State Share will let gamers share the exact state of their game via a URL, which can be clicked by users to launch a similar instance of the game on their own device. For streamers, Google introduced Crowd Play, where an advanced lobby system will let viewers play with or against their favourite streamers/content creators on YouTube.

Towards the end, Google announced its new Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio to develop and design new games for the community. The American company also stated that more than 100 renowned studios already have devkits for Stadia, so more games should be added to the library really soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HikAuH40fHc

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As of now, Google has not come forward with a precise launch date for the platform, but rest assured that it will launch sometime during the end of 2019. Similarly, no pricing for the same was unveiled at the event. Google Stadia may face some serious competition from Microsoft’s upcoming XCloud Service, which will let users stream games directly via the Xbox and Steam’s upcoming game streaming service.

March 20, 2019