PlayStation Now may have been discarded from the conversation, but it’s still the only game streaming service currently on the market. That changes on 19th November, as Google gears up the release of its Stadia initiative. The launch will be limited to begin with, as the search engine giant sells off its Founder’s Edition first. A more wider-scale release will follow in 2020, with Chrome browsers and Pixel phones supported.
Sony recently dropped the price of its streaming service, and has been aggressively marketing it ever since. There are some key differences in business model between the two organisations, though: most software will need to be purchased for Stadia, where a subscription gets you access to all 800 titles in the PS Now’s vault. You can also download PlayStation 4 games to the console, while Google’s option relies solely on streaming.
It’ll be interesting to see how things develop over the coming months; Google’s clearly playing the long-game here, and it won’t be expecting Stadia to take off straightaway. To an extent, that’s also true of the PlayStation maker: it may have been flogging PS Now subscriptions for several years, but it’s only very recently it’s started to put its weight behind the service. With Microsoft also touting its own xCloud project, it’ll be fascinating to see how things shake out over the coming years.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 31
don't care i'm still not touching the damn thing, Stadia can go burn in a ditch for all i care
Only competitor? Gamepass? 🤔
@daveofduncan You can stream games with Game Pass?
@daveofduncan gamepass is not a streaming service
@daveofduncan game pass isn't streaming. That would more so be Xcloud,which has a beta going on right now and works very very well from the few hours I put into it.
@Bagshot AAA games, RDR2, Borderlands 3, Doom, Destiny etc
I'm certainly excited to see where the streaming side of things is in a few years!
This has got to be one of the most muted release date announcements in recent memory.
@redd214 hopefully dead
why people are happy to loose ALL control over the games they buy is beyond me
@FullbringIchigo definitely won't be, happy though that there are options for us all
Even though I agree with you wholeheartedly @FullbringIchigo and try to get everything I can physically
... I do appreciate @redd214 's optimism in like every thread i see him post in
@get2sammyb I get what you're saying but surely Gamepass is a competitor as they are offering very similar types of deals, whilst the main reason PS now is a streaming service is due to the PS4 not being able to play PS3 games. I mean you can still download PS4 games through that service can't you?
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy lol thanks, I get that a lot, just prefer to be that way.
Reason for the optimism is cause I've tried most of the game streaming services and the all work awesome for the most part! I am fortunate enough to live/work in an area that has the infrastructure for it but at the same time I get that most people aren't. I'm not one of those that wants it to completely takeover but I view at as a great option for some gamers that's all
@FullbringIchigo Why pay for air its like a Ubisoft liveservice game.
@carlos82 PS Now originally launched as a streaming service. You're right they added downloads in so it's now blurring the lines between Stadia and Game Pass, but it's still more of a streaming service.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy true it is refreshing to see someone so optimistic these days
@redd214 it is nice to have options that's true i just don't like the idea of publishers being in charge of when and how we play our games we are already seeing games and DLC we have paid for getting delisted and losing access to them, that's a product we paid for and as such we should be allowed to use it when we want to not when some soulless, faceless company says we can
I'm curious to read about extensive hands-on impressions on the Stadia when it releases, but I have zero interest in getting one.
@FullbringIchigo I definitely understand that point if view. I can't recall a time that has affected me personally but can totally see how it can be a road block for some.
Given all the data caps and bandwidth restrictions in Canada. I'm going to assume that Stadia is going to flop damn hard here.
Meh.
I'll give them a year before they abandon it.
@FullbringIchigo You don't lose access if a game is delisted dude. You can still redownload if you purchased the game. The only exception I can think of was the PT demo and that of course was just a demo.
@TowaHerschel7 i can't redownload any of my Forza 4 DLC and they were delisted
but this isn't about downloading this is about streaming, if this fails and Google shuts it down those games and your access to them are gone, games you paid for perhaps hundreds of pounds worth just gone and that is a future i do not want
Well I would be surprised if it doesn't flop here in the US with the horrible internet connection that we have, unless you live in the big cities then you are out
Awesome. I'm really looking forward to Stadia despite its detractors.
since stadia's architecture is linux-based, one could hope the number of PC titles that natively support linux would increase, which would greatly attract some of us to include PC gaming as an option without the need for using the privacy-breaching-telemetry-ridden-OS-as-a-service garbage that is windows 10.
@3MonthBeef It's not often you see a confirmed date for a gaming console or platform met with such apathy. It just feels like there's barely any interest in Stadia right now. But like the article says, Google's establishing something for the future, if it lasts that long.
I honestly believe Stadia or game streaming Is the future. Tech is not there yet, so for now I don't touch it. But in 6+ years, tech will be better and bandwidths and caps will be better as well. But when the tech works, I'm in 100%
But I think it is for gamers like me. I don't care about saving my game for decades or replaying them year after year. I can't think of a single game I've played for more than a few months other than wow and warframe. I get a game, play the he'll out of it and move on and never look back.
Plus you will always be playing on the high end tech. Since their servers keep updating its like playing on a updated high end pc all the time without hassle of upgrades.
I can see why some may still want hard copies , but for me, I couldn't careless. So I'm looking forward to the future of cloud gaming, it's just not ready yet.
Streaming is trash, I don't care if it's from Sony, Microsoft, Google or anyone else.
Not interested in this "future" of gaming.
@get2sammyb @amppari where did I say that? It's a psnow competitor regardless. Whole reason Sony got their act together with it. Believing otherwise is ridiculous.
Don't make me laugh.
@FullbringIchigo I’m not singling you out (I wouldn’t mess with Tuvok!), but you have laid out the position of a lot people here quite well, so I’d like to address this point: “i just don't like the idea of publishers being in charge of when and how we play our games we are already seeing games and DLC we have paid for getting delisted and losing access to them, that's a product we paid for and as such we should be allowed to use it when we want to not when some soulless, faceless company says we can”.
I would say the ‘product’ we buy these days is a different to the product being sold in the past, and we have to get used to that. We are buying temporary access yes, but there is a reasonable expectation that the access will last for as long as we want it. For sure there is a risk that my ‘paid access’ to a game ends and I don’t have it anymore, but there was also always a risk that my CD-ROM got scratched or a cartridge fell in a cup of tea (it happens!). I think about this a lot in regard to Spotify, as I have a huge physical music collection that I would never want to be cut off from and I find myself buying less these days, but then Spotify also gives me access to music I would never be able to afford. I just now accept that with Spotify I’m buying the opportunity to hear stuff that wasn’t possible before, and if I really do value something for the repeat value then it’s up to me to determine how much I value it and thus what effort I will make to secure its’ future availability.
I dunno, I’m rambling a bit, but I think my TL;DR is that it isn’t a direct comparison between products for streaming and physical media.
So I'm interested to see where Stadia goes. I thought Netflix wasn't for me when it launched, but I was wrong...
@redd214 Anti-consumer services are not viable options. If you enjoy paying 2-3x for a single game then that's on you, but the intelligent consumer knows full well that streaming games is for the foolish.
Netflix works because a single piece of content can be consumed in 30 minutes to 2 hours on average. If you take a month to play a 20 hour game, that's $10 already for that one game. Problem is, you won't just play that one game. By the time you finish it, you most likely will be over the cost to own the game. And please don't tell me you're one of the ones who are playing multiplayer games through it, because then I'll know you can't have any sense talked into you.
I got a friend who has used Gamepass strictly for Sea of Thieves since launch day. The sad part? He's not a rare statistic. Most people use it to play 1 or 2 games with dedication while trying out several games they never would have bought for an hour a piece, and then saying the service has paid for itself. A fool and his money...
@Nintyfan that's a great opinion my friend. Glad you can still buy games how you prefer and that others have options that may not appeal to you. Win win for us all
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