What on (Google) Earth is Google Stadia? Daniel Bray keeps you in the know about the monolith’s move into the gaming industry
Google announced that November 19th will be the release date for their new game streaming service, Stadia, at the Made by Google event in New York this week. The concept of Stadia is simple – it relies solely on a controller and a Chromecast device, to stream games to your TV without the need for a console. And, At £119, this is less than half of the price of the latest offerings from Xbox and PlayStation – a very compelling price.
The catalogue of games that Google is offering is not to be laughed at either – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Doom, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all officially coming to Stadia, and on top of this, the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 will also be making an appearance on the platform when it is released next year.
Google are promising a gaming experience including up to 4K resolution, at 60fps, with 5.1 surround sound for those who purchase an additional membership to ‘Stadia Pro,’ costing £8.99 a month. Alternatively, you can get a resolution of up to 1080p at 60fps, with stereo sound, with the free ‘Stadia Base’ plan, which isn’t available until the general release next year.
Something to bear in mind with regards to Stadia is that although the advertised resolution of up to 4K is possible, you will require a minimum of a 10Mbps internet speed to play at the lowest resolution of 720p, and to play in 4K at 60fps with 5.1 surround sound, you’ll need internet speeds upwards of 30Mbps. Ofcom’s 2019 report says that the proportion of internet lines receiving an average peak-time download speed of above 30Mbps is 44% in rural areas, and 61% in urban areas. This clearly leaves a lot to be desired in terms of accessibility to the higher end of the quality spectrum.
Google are in a unique position here – despite having never ventured into the world of gaming before, they are hopeful that they can make games consoles become a thing of the past. Being the owners of the world’s biggest video platform in YouTube, they obviously sense the opportunity that being able to engage with a ready-made audience presents them – and if they can convince people to seamlessly go from watching videos of games to playing these games in an instant, then maybe the console giants should be slightly worried about the future.
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