The day has finally come. With Google teasing gamers all over the world with their announcement of getting into the gaming scene, we’re finally able to see what the noise was all about.
What is Stadia?
Google’s new gaming service, where there’s no box required. With this service, all someone has to do is click a “play now” button whenever they want to play a game and then the game automatically launches. No install, all streamed directly from the service. Which sounds nice, actually.
This new generation of gaming is not a box, says Phil Harris. He then takes a few jabs at multiple gaming platforms, before showing us how the service works. During this demo, they played on a game on a Chromebook, then switched from multiple devices. Such as a tablet, a smartphone and over to a TV. The TV did require a Chromecast Ultra dongle to get the game going, but that was all. This actually works similar to the existing PC service, Shadow.
This Stadia is compatible with most Bluetooth gamepads as well. But Google didn’t stop there and showed off their own Shadia controller. Which looks very similar to an Xbox One or Nintendo Switch Pro controller. However, there are several unique buttons on the controller. A share button will allow gamers to upload content directly to YouTube. The other button is an assistance button, that will use a built-in microphone and can be used to ask for help with the device.
“The future of gaming is not a box. It’s a place.”
Now Google is talking about using their datacenters and cloud hardware, their bandwidth providing the ability to assure that Stadia will provide plenty of power. For both developers and gamers. Google also hooked up with AMD to develop a custom GPU for the datacenter. Similar to what Nvidia has done for datacenters in the past with their GeForce Now.
Stadia will support up to 4K@60fps, with HDR and surround sound. Going beyond that, 8K and 120fps is also in the roadmap.
It will also support a simultaneous stream that can be used to save your gameplay to YouTube, at 4K.
How does stack up?
How does 10.7 teraflops sound to you? That’s more than the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4. Stadia will also run on a Linux kernel and will utilize the Vulkan graphics API.
Google has also partnered with both Epic Game for the Unreal Engine, Unity, and Havok. Currently, Google has partnered with multiple companies to provide the best gaming experience that they can.
Marty Stratton from idSoftware joined the show and announced that DOOM Eternal is coming to Stadia, running at 4K@60fps and HDR. They’be also stated that DOOM Eternal is going to be shown off and is one hand for those at GDC 2019 to take the game for a spin.
We also finally get to see Jade Raymond, who recently joined Google as a Vice President. While we speculated she was joining up for this new gaming service, nothing was ever confirmed. That is until now, as she took the stage to hype up the service and let the world know that Google is getting ready to do battle with Sony, Microsoft, and even Nintendo. She’s also heading Google’s new gaming studio that will be producing exclusive titles for Stadia, State Games and Entertainment. With more than 100 studios that are developing for Stadia, there’s definitely going to be some noise to be made in the gaming scene.
Currently, there wasn’t any pricing available for Stadia. There are also a few questions that didn’t get answered, such as what sort of internet requirements will be needed to use Stadia. Other than DOOM Eternal, what other games are coming to the platform?
However, Google did state that we’ll find out more about the service this Summer 2019. Which means Google is going to be at E3 2019, in a big way.
