Google Stadia

Stadia is a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google. It is advertised to be capable of streaming video games up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with support for high-dynamic-range, to players via the company's numerous data centers across the globe, provided they are using a sufficiently high-speed internet connection. It is accessible through the Google Chrome web browser on personal computers, Pixel smartphones, supported smartphones from Samsung, OnePlus, Razer and Asus,[1] as well as Chrome OS tablets and Chromecast for TV support.[2] There is also an experimental mode with support for all Android devices capable of installing the Stadia mobile app.[3]

Stadia

Mobile device running Mortal Kombat 11 on Stadia with official controller
DeveloperGoogle
Launch dateNovember 19, 2019 (2019-11-19)
Operating system(s)Cross-platform
Websitestadia.google.com

The service is planned to be integrated with YouTube, and its "state share" feature will allow viewers of a Stadia stream to launch a game on the service on the same save state as the streamer. This has been used as a selling point for the service. It is compatible with HID class USB controllers, though a proprietary controller manufactured by Google with a direct Wi-Fi link to data centers is available alongside the service. Despite comparisons, Stadia is not similar to Netflix, in that Stadia requires users to purchase games to stream via Stadia rather than pay for access to a library of games. While the base service is free and requires users to purchase games, a Pro tier monthly subscription allows users to stream at higher rates of up to 4K resolution, surround sound, and offers 1-5 free games a month that the user has access to while they are subscribed. Games claimed for free using the subscription can still be bought, but only after the subscription has ended. The games will continue to be available while you are subscribed, even if you have cancelled your subscription for any duration of time since the games were claimed. Both tiers allow users to play online multiplayer without any additional costs.

Known in development as Project Stream, the service was debuted through a closed beta running Assassin's Creed Odyssey in October 2018. Stadia was publicly released on November 19, 2019 in selected countries and received a mixed reception from reviewers. The service competes with Sony's PlayStation Now service, Nvidia's GeForce Now, and Microsoft's Project xCloud. On April 8, 2020, Google released the Stadia free base service, along with giving new users two months of Pro subscription. The initial free Pro subscription for new users was later changed to one month.

Features

Stadia is a cloud gaming service,[4] and does not require additional computer hardware, only requiring the device to have an Internet connection and support for Google Chrome. Stadia works atop YouTube's functionality in streaming media to the user, as game streaming is seen as an extension of watching video game live streams, according to Google's Phil Harrison; the name "Stadia", the Latin plural of "stadium", is meant to reflect that it is a collection of entertainment, which the viewer can choose to sit back and watch, or take an active part in.[5] As Google had built out a large number of data centers across the globe, the company believes that Stadia is in a better position for cloud gaming compared to past endeavours like OnLive, PlayStation Now, and Gaikai, as most players would be geographically close to a data center. Stadia supports the streaming of games in HDR at 60 frames per second with 4K resolution, and anticipates eventually reaching 120 frames per second at 8K resolution.[5] Players can start games without having to download new content to their personal device. Players can opt to record or stream their sessions onto YouTube through Stadia. Viewers of such streams can launch the games directly from the stream with the same save state that they were just watching.[5]

The streaming technology enables new features on Stadia. Stream Connect allows Stadia players, cooperatively playing the same game with friends, to have picture-in-picture inserts on their display of their friends' point-of-view in the game. This feature was first launched with the release of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint.[6] The streaming technology allows for larger number of concurrent players on a game server; for example, servers for Grid are normally limited to 16 players, while the Stadia version allows up to 40.[7]

While Stadia can use any HID-class USB controller, Google developed its own controller which connects via Wi-Fi directly to the Google data center in which the game is running, to reduce input latency.[5] Google is also exploring further ways to reduce latency, using an idea called "negative latency" which involves prediction of user input through various means so that any apparent network lag between controller and game response is minimized.[8] During its GDC 2019 keynote reveal, Google confirmed that the controller would also feature Google Assistant, which will automatically search YouTube for relevant, helpful videos related to the game they are currently playing at the touch of a key.[9]

Stadia offers two tiers of service, a free level (initially at launch known as "Stadia Base" but after April 2020, simply "Stadia") and a monthly subscription Stadia Pro level. The free Stadia level limits streaming to 1080p resolutions. The Pro tier costs approximately US$10 per month, but allows users to access higher streaming rates up to 4K resolution, access a library of free games over time, and get discounts on other games offered for Stadia.[10] Harrison stated they are also looking into offering publisher subscriptions and other models in the future;[11] for example, Ubisoft announced its Uplay Plus subscription service will be available to Stadia users. Since April 2020, new users to Stadia are offered a limited period of free access to Stadia Pro features, and retain any games purchased this period to their account if they fall back to the free Stadia level; initially, new users received two months of Pro access, which was reduced to one month starting on June 3, 2020.[12][13]

The internet speed requirements for the different types of picture quality from Stadia's service is as follows:[14][15]

Bandwidth required Video quality Audio quality
10 Mbit/s 720p, 60 FPS Stereo
20 Mbit/s 1080p HDR Video, 60 FPS 5.1 Surround
35 Mbit/s 4K HDR Video, 60 FPS 5.1 Surround

Hardware

Upon launch, Stadia's cloud hardware initially uses a custom Intel[16] x86 processor clocked at 2.7 GHz, with AVX2 and 9.5 megabytes of L2+L3 cache.[17] It also uses a custom AMD GPU based on the Vega architecture with HBM2 memory, 56 compute units, and 10.7 teraFLOPS.[17][18] The service also has solid-state drive storage, and 16 GB of RAM (supporting up to 484 GB/s bandwidth) shared between the GPU and the CPU.[17]

Google developed the controller for Stadia. The controller includes two thumbsticks, a directional pad, four main face buttons, two sets of shoulder buttons, and five additional controller face buttons. The controller can connect either using a physical cable to the device or directly to Google's servers via a WiFi network, to reduce the latency of controller communication with Stadia services. The controller has been available since launch in three color schemes, Clearly White, Just Black, and Wasabi; the Founder's Pack included a limited edition Midnight Blue controller.[10]

Stadia initially launched in November 19, 2019 with a Founder's Pack, which included a Chromecast Ultra, a limited edition Midnight Blue Stadia controller, three months of Pro service, and an additional three months of Pro service to gift to a friend.[10][19]

The service was expanded to several Samsung Galaxy, Razer Phone and ASUS ROG Phone devices in February 2020.[20] Starting in June 2020, Stadia became accessible on OnePlus' 5, 6, and 7 series phones, and access can be enabled on other Android phones and tablets with Android 6 and above as an "experimental" feature.[21] At the same time, touch controls were made available as an alternative to using a supported controller for touchscreen Android devices.[21]

Software

Stadia is built on Debian Linux servers and Vulkan is their graphics API.[22][23]

"This [Stadia] starts with our platform foundations of Linux and Vulkan and shows in our selection of GPUs that have open-source drivers and tools. We’re integrating LLVM and DirectX Shader Compiler to ensure you get great features and performance from our compilers and debuggers."[22]

— Dov Zimring, Stadia Developer Platform Lead

Development
Stadia booth at the 2019 Game Developers Conference.

Project Stream was Google's first announced sign of interest in video gaming products. The company had previously been rumored as working on a service called Project Yeti since at least 2016. Google had also hired gaming industry executive Phil Harrison and was seen recruiting developers during industry events in 2018.[24] Project Stream's main differentiator from past services, such as OnLive, GeForce Now, and PlayStation Now, is its ability to run in any desktop Chrome browser, so no additional software needs to be installed.[25] The service uses AMD Radeon graphics hardware.[26] Internally, the service was developed around 2016's Doom to show that the proof-of-concept worked in realistic settings across the public internet.[27]

Google announced the service in October 2018[28] and soon after, opened invitations to beta testers with access to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Players could apply for access and those who met an Internet speed minimum could run the game in their Chrome browsers.[29] Those who participated received a free copy of the game when the beta expired.[30] Stadia was formally announced during Google's keynote address at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in March 2019.[31] To support Stadia, Google also announced the formation of Stadia Games and Entertainment, with Jade Raymond as its lead. Besides developing their own games, Stadia Games and Entertainment will help support the transition of third-party titles to the Stadia service.[32]

Stadia Games and Entertainment

Alongside Stadia, Google established the Stadia Games and Entertainment division in March 2019, with industry veteran Jade Raymond as its head. This division will focus on internal development of games for Stadia in addition to those they have obtained from third parties.[33] The first studio was established in Montreal October 24th, 2019.

In December 2019, the Stadia Games and Entertainment division acquired Typhoon Studios to develop additional content for the platform.[34]

A second Stadia studio, located in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, was opened in March 2020, led by former Sony Santa Monica head Shannon Studstill.[35]

Availability

Stadia launched in November 2019 in fourteen countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and at that time, limited to the Pro tier users. By 2020, Google plans to expand Stadia to more countries.

In April 2020 Google made Stadia available to anyone in the initially supported countries.[36]

Games
Main article: List of Stadia games

Stadia requires users to purchase games to use over the service, though it offers a library of free games over time for Pro tier subscribers, as well as the first two years of Destiny 2 content for free for those who purchased the Founder's Pack.[10] At the time of the platform's full reveal in June 2019, Google announced that Gylt by Tequila Works and Get Packed by Moonshine Studios would be exclusive to Stadia.[37] The service launched with 22 games, and added 4 more in December 2019.[38][39]

In January 2020, Google announced that it planned to release over 120 games for Stadia during that year, of which 10 were timed-exclusives set to release in the first half of the year.[40]

Reception

Pre-release

During its beta, the service received generally positive initial impressions from reviewers, who felt it met and in some instances, exceeded expectations[25][28][29] and could make game streaming appear as a potentially viable alternative to PC gaming;[28][29] however, some minor discrepancies and technical issues were nonetheless noted.

Reviewers reported that the streaming service had low latency and felt as if the game was being played locally.[28][29] Despite this, depending on Wi-Fi speeds, the game sometimes compressed its screen resolution or lagged.[29] A test by The Verge found no lag issues over a wired ethernet connection, and occasional stuttering on a shared Wi-Fi connection.[29] However, even on a wired connection, the stream did not output at 4K resolution and occasionally went fuzzy with compression artifacting. The reviewer reported the best experience on Google's Chromebook Pixel.[29] Polygon found the service's audio compression noticeable.[28] Ars Technica remarked that Project Stream's login sequence was far simpler than that of other services.[25] Digital Foundry performed a hands-on with Assassin's Creed Odyssey on a Pixelbook on the service in Beta, and found that on the testing environment, latency seemed acceptable, but there was a noticeable visual hit. They also remarked that Assassin's Creed Odyssey was not the best example for testing, as it was already a natively laggy game.[41][lower-alpha 1]

Post-release

Stadia received mixed reviews upon its release: Metacritic lists 0 extremely positive reviews, 8 positive reviews, 29 mixed reviews and 14 negative reviews.[43] Wired Magazine described the image quality as "drab", but admitted to preferring to play Destiny 2 on a Chromebook instead of a larger gaming laptop.[44] VentureBeat criticized the service's pricing model, comparing it unfavorably to subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass and claiming that Stadia "doesn't matter".[45] Digital Foundry found that the service was not playing all games at 4K resolutions: Red Dead Redemption 2 was found to only run at 1440p, and Destiny 2 ran at only 1080p (albeit at a frame rate higher than that of the console versions).[46] Digital Foundry also discovered that games like Red Dead Redemption 2 also struggled to maintain a consistent 60 frames per second, claiming that their test of the game on Chromecast only outputted a solid 30 FPS, while a test on the Chrome browser was an unstable 60 FPS that dropped frequently.[47] The Guardian gave Stadia three stars out of five, praising the service's technical performance, while criticising its game selection for being too old and only featuring one exclusive.[48] Ars Technica concluded: "Early adopters feel like they're getting a beta product here. Wait until next year to see if Google can work out the kinks and prove the service's longevity."[49] S&P Global Market Intelligence reported that: "Stadia met with tepid enthusiasm from analysts and early adopters who criticized the service's slate of launch titles and lack of promoted features".[50] Dieter Bohn from The Verge has stated that "I have put in enough hours in enough conditions to say that this is a beta product, and Google should have labeled it as such and launched it differently. Because even in the best conditions, this ain’t the best."[51]

Towards the end of January 2020, Stadia users expressed concern about Google's non-communicative stance on Stadia, outside of its monthly free game additions; these users were concerned about planned features that were to be available in the next few months from Google's initial timeline but yet have been discussed further, such as 4K streaming resolution support. A Google community manager had been following these discussions and expressed sympathy that users have been waiting for information, and stated that there is news that they could not yet discuss but will be able to soon.[52][53] Google responded by pointing users to its Stadia community site where it was providing weekly updates on the progress on Stadia's features, and that in terms of future games, they mostly had left it to publishers to announce when these games would be available on Stadia.[54]

Platform Exclusive Features
Feature Description Availability
Crowd Choice Crowd Choice allows streamers to let viewers decide on in-game actions via a poll. N/A
Crowd Play Crowd Play is a built-in feature for Stadia that allows players to jump into a multiplayer game with their favourite streamers and YouTubers. Limited Testing
State Share State Share allows players to share a link so that others can experience the game being played at a specific moment, exactly as the players are. Beta (As part of Crayta)
Stream Connect Allows multiplayer games to display the video feed of another player in Picture-in-Picture mode. Released

Notes
  1. Assassin's Creed Odyssey was originally designed for gameplay at 30 frames per second.[42]
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Thusly, use it?!?!?!
gollark: I checked, and apparently "autorouters" already exist.
gollark: Why do people *manually* drag wires around when they could presumably just say "thing A pin 8 should go to thing B pin 4" unreasonably frequently and have the graph™ graphed™.
gollark: I mean, it's probably NP-hard, but lots of things are.

References
  1. "This Week on Stadia: Play games on tens of millions of new phones". community.stadia.com. February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  2. "Stadia FAQ". Stadia Help. Google. June 20, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  3. "Stadia Savepoint: June updates". The Keyword. Google. June 30, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  4. Techno, Highly. "Google's Stadia Gaming Platform". HighlyTechno. Shubham. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  5. Leadbetter, Richard (March 19, 2019). "The big interview: Phil Harrison and Majd Bakar on Google Stadia". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  6. Saed, Sherif (December 17, 2019). "Stadia's first Stream Connect game, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, arrives tomorrow". VG247. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  7. Prescott, Shaun (November 23, 2019). "Grid for Stadia has a 40 car mode that 'isn't possible with other hardware'". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  8. DeAngelis, Marc (October 10, 2019). "Google wants to reduce Stadia lag with 'negative latency'". Engadget. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  9. Bowers, Quintlyn (March 19, 2019). "Stadia's Wi-Fi Controller Looks Familiar, But Features Google Assistant". GameSkinny. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  10. Hollister, Sean (June 6, 2019). "Google's Stadia game service is officially coming November: Everything you need to know". The Verge. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  11. Castle, Katherine (June 9, 2019). "Google Stadia's getting publisher subscriptions on top of Stadia Pro". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  12. Valentine, Rebekah (April 24, 2020). "Google abandons Stadia Base branding as it launches free tier". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  13. "Get one free month of Stadia Pro as a new user starting June 3". community.stadia.com. May 20, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  14. "Stadia Founder's Edition". Google Store. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  15. "Speedtest". Google Store. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  16. Hruska, Joel (March 25, 2019). "Google Stadia is powered by Intel, not AMD". ExtremeTech. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  17. Lilly, Paul (March 19, 2019). "Google Stadia's specs and latency revealed". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  18. Subramaniam, Vaidyanathan. "Google Stadia uses a custom AMD Vega 56 GCN 1.5 GPU". Notebookcheck. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  19. Hollister, Sean (October 15, 2019). "Google's Stadia cloud gaming service will launch on November 19th". The Verge. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  20. Ivan, Tom (February 18, 2020). "Stadia expanding Android mobile support this week". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  21. "This Week on Stadia: It's a great time to buy the game you want most". community.stadia.com. June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  22. "Welcome to Stadia". Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  23. "Stadia Is Google's Cloud Gaming Service Using Linux, Vulkan & A Custom AMD GPU". phoronix.com. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  24. Amadeo, Ron (October 1, 2018). "Google announces 'Project Stream'—a 'test' of game streaming in Chrome". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  25. Machkovech, Sam (October 9, 2018). "Google's Project Stream: That's really a full Assassin's Creed in my browser". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  26. Takahashi, Dean (January 9, 2019). "Google's Project Stream cloud gaming will use AMD Radeon Graphics". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  27. How DOOM Helped Convince Google That Stadia Would Work – IGN First. IGN. November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019 – via YouTube.
  28. Goslin, Austen (October 8, 2018). "Streaming Assassin's Creed Odyssey in Google Chrome is surprisingly great". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 17, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  29. Etienne, Stefan (October 8, 2018). "Google's Project Stream is a working preview of the future of game streaming". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  30. Good, Owen S. (December 15, 2018). "Get free Assassin's Creed Odyssey on PC for testing Google's Project Stream". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 23, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  31. Wilde, Tyler (March 19, 2019). "Google announces Stadia, a game streaming service 'for everyone'". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  32. Chalk, Andy (March 19, 2019). "Jade Raymond is heading Google's first-party game studio". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  33. Webster, Andrew (March 19, 2019). "Google created its own studio for Stadia-exclusive games". The Verge. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  34. Sinclair, Brendan (December 19, 2019). "Stadia acquires Typhoon Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  35. Wawro, Alex (March 4, 2020). "Google picks California as the home for its second Stadia studio". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  36. Harrison, Phil (April 8, 2020). "Play Stadia Pro for free, starting today". Google Stadia. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  37. Warren, Tom (June 6, 2019). "Here are all the games coming to Google's Stadia cloud streaming service". The Verge. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  38. Romano, Sal (November 11, 2019). "Stadia launch lineup announced". Gematsu. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
  39. Prescott, Shaun (November 16, 2019). "The Google Stadia launch line-up has nearly doubled". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  40. Yin-Poole, Wesley (January 16, 2020). "Google promises more than 10 Stadia timed-exclusives by July 2020". Eurogamer. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  41. "Google Stadia hands-on: streaming analysis and controller impressions". Eurogamer. March 19, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is perhaps not the best example for testing, as it's natively a fairly laggy game, so it will be interesting to test faster 60fps titles (...) Stadia is perfectly playable and presentable here, but it's clear that there is a noticeable visual hit when the encoder is presented with more a more detail-rich, fast-moving scene process.
  42. Katharine Castle (April 23, 2018). "Assassin's Creed Odyssey PC graphics performance: How to get the best settings". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  43. Dietz, Jason (November 18, 2019). "Cloud Gaming Service Review: Google Stadia". Metacritic. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  44. "Stadia Might Be One of Google's Best Products—Eventually". WIRED.
  45. "Google Stadia review — It works, but it doesn't matter". November 18, 2019.
  46. Leadbetter, Richard (November 18, 2019). "Stadia tech review: the best game streaming yet, but far from ready".
  47. Foundry, Digital (November 18, 2019). "Interesting to see Stadia RDR2 capture out there running at an unstable 60fps. A bit tired here and Stadia barely runs on my home connection right now for some reason, but Saturday night's Chromecast captures are indeed 30fps, while Chrome browser output seem to be aiming for 60.pic.twitter.com/4p7SXk7JPW".
  48. Hern, Alex (November 18, 2019). "Google Stadia review – the console vanishes from video gaming". The Guardian. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  49. Orland, Kyle (November 18, 2019). "Google Stadia launch review: Gaming's "future" looks rough in the present". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  50. Halder, Anser (November 21, 2019). "Google's new Stadia platform faces muted reception tied to game launch slate". S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  51. "Google Stadia should have stayed in beta". www.theverge.com.
  52. Kerr, Chris (January 28, 2020). "Stadia owners on Reddit are blasting Google over radio silence and lack of support". Gamasutra. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  53. Kelpek, Patrick (January 28, 2020). "It's Increasingly Clear Stadia's Launch Was an Expensive Beta Test". Vice. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  54. Batchlor, James (January 30, 2020). "Google responds to complaints of slow Stadia announcements". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved January 30, 2020.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.