You know, I almost feel bad picking on Google's Stadia Project. Maybe it's just because of that reveal event which was hosted by someone I actually respect, but I can't help but think of the human cost at risk if Stadia- when Stadia goes the way of the dodo. The more dirt that I pull up on this project, the more I find myself thinking 'Am I on the right side of this issue?'. The simple promise of high quality gaming without having to rely on consoles is an ideal worth pursuing, and sometimes I feel like I'm the one fighting windmills when I trash on it. But then I think about my genuine excitement for X-cloud and PlayStation's inevitable cloud gaming system, and I realize that this all stems from my fundamental mistrust of Google.
And why shouldn't I mistrust a company who have proven themselves time and time again to be unwilling to go the distance. I've spoken before about the graveyard of Google projects and services that lie in that company's past, all of which paint a poor picture for what one can expect when it comes to the longevity of Stadia. None of that is to mention the heavy strain this will put on data plans, (Still waiting for those universal price drops that Google promised us would happen.) nor how much that will clog local bandwidth. Then there is the miscommunication regarding the supplication of games, Stadia requires games to be purchased at full price rather than the 'Netflix'-esque deal that people expected from a streaming service. (And what happens to all those games when Stadia inevitably disappears? Without a console or any data client-side, everything vanishes.) I may be a curmudgeon when it comes to Google Stadia, but all the above should convince you that I've built my doubts on solid foundations.
But that is all in the past, as of now, because Stadia is finally out and we can all stop judging the tech on it's presumed merits and get to looking at what the systems(?) actual merits are. Or at least, the merits that they were ready to show at launch. Despite grand promises and impressive demos, it seems that Stadia wasn't quite ready to meet it's launch (shocker) and now there are a decent bevy of exciting features that the founder edition of Stadia has launched without.
Straightaway the PC Chrome will not support 4k, HDR or 5.1 surround sound. (Features which, at this point, aren't even difficult asks.) The 'Stream Connect' feature, in which people can join online streams, will not be available to any and all games (like implied) but a select few, none of which are titles that are launching this year. State Share, which is the big feature that google touted wherein which you could pick up from someone's game on a YouTube video and play that exact instance, is MIA with no clear idea on when it will all be up. Family sharing is a no go, requiring games to be purchased full price several times over. There are no achievements, however the system is keeping track of progress and will award such when achievements launch next year, which makes literally no sense. (What? You guys couldn't be bothered to fit in a UI?) ChromeCast Ultra units that shipped with Stadia are the only ones that can inherently use the service, others will be remotely updated at some point. "Buddy pass", allowing you to refer someone else to the service for a full 3 months, isn't here yet. (Which is the kind of promotion literally designed for the launch period.) The phone is needed to set up the system, buying games through ChromeCast or the web is not supported. (Okay, this is getting embarrassing now.) Expanding on that, phone support is still online available on those expensive google Pixel phones and ChromeOS tablets. The Controller only works with ChromeCast, which in turn only works if it arrived with the controller, which in turn only works if you have a compatible phone. And yet somehow, it gets worse.
As if all those blaring red flags weren't enough to put you off, Google has another F-you up their sleeve as this service has debuted with only 12 games, and only one of them is new. (An indie title called Gylt.) They offered Assassin's Creed Odyssey, (Which is a year old) Destiny 2, (Which is now free-to-play) Just Dance 2020, (yay) a small title called Kine, (Which is only a month old but launched on literally everything. Take your pick.) Mortal Kombat 11, (Launched at the beginning of this year.) Rise of the Tomb Raider, (Which is 4 years old.) Red Dead Redemption 2, (which just launched on traditional PC. With mods.) Samurai Shodown, (launched in June) Shadow of the Tomb Raider, (1 year old) Thumper (3 Years old) and Tomb Raider. (6 years old.) I hate to harp on about release dates, but the entire original selling point of Stadia was to circumvent the way that modern games forever push past the capabilities of modern public systems requiring for expensive updates. But any gamer who is active today is capable of playing all the games on the list (Except maybe the PC version of RDR2. It is pretty recent.)
This was a product that was clearly pushed to launch early when the team realized that the big gaming giants were ready to debut their own products in direct competition. Even google acknowledged their weak line up as they scrambled together to rush 10 more games onto the service for launch day. (surprise, I guess.) Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2, (Launched in July) Farming Simulator 2019, (1 year old. Also, this game was renowned for being one of the early adopters of Console mods, a system for which we have no idea how it will work over Stadia) Final Fantasy XV (3 years old. My how time flies...) Football Manager 2020, (Talk about a niche audience) Grid 2019, (A month old) Metro Exodus, (Another early year game.) NBA 2K20, (a game that is considered extraordinary for how terrible it is.) Rage 2, (God that was a game that launched this year, wasn't it!) Trials Rising, (A year old and on everything.) And 'Wolfenstien: Youngblood.' (Which is in the same proverbial camp as NBA 2K20.) None of these titles are promising and/or exclusive enough to demand gamers jump over to them and the fact that all these games are retailing at full price (even the old ones) makes this service prohibitively expensive to the casual gaming audience that Google were aiming at. Oh sure, if you purchase 'Stadia Pro' you get access to 2 of these games for free, Samurai Shodown and Destiny 2, but one of those games is a niche fighter game (Not everyone's cup of tea) and the other just freakin' went free-to-play! WHO IS THIS SERVICE FOR THEN, IDIOTS?
All of these drawbacks, alongside the poor marketing job, has apparently had a blow back on sales numbers if early rumors are to be believed. Kotaku Editor, Jason Schrier, has relayed on Twitter that his sources have seen sales numbers and they look disappointing. Apparently Stadia's preorders were lower than expected and this launch has already been labelled a flop internally. (I wonder why?) Although Jason is adamant that Google won't give up on the system this early. To which I must agree, even Google plus had a few years of fight in it before it withered away into nothingness. At least the service is out there and has some games for people to play, that way people can play with the services available (what little there is) and spread the word of Stadia. They can build up their reputation one good review at a time, grass-routes style, afterall, those are the kinds of communities that tend to last the longest.
Except that's unlikely to pan out for them either considering how early impressions are going. We've seen the tech correspondent from the Washington Post (Stadia dies in Darkness) post footage of second-long input lag in Destiny and even heard circumstantial evidence of European reviewers facing up to 4 seconds of input lag. (Although, amazing, they apparently managed to clear the introductory level of Destiny 2. What absolute troopers!) Forbes called the service a 'technological disaster' reporting periodic stuttering, frame drops and resolution drops, just about all the things that Google promised us would not happen with this new tech. Needless to say, all this pretty much makes Stadia unplayable right now and will undoubtedly forever taint the service in the months to come, even after the team manage to get their act together and fix these issues. (Which they better if they want to make it to Christmas 2020.)
Of course, there are some positives to the system. One being that the game has significantly reduced load times over it's console peers, and the other being the ability to instantly play games without having to download or install them. (Like the good old days.) And that's it. Those are the only positives that anyone has been able to scrounge up for this system. Forbes reviewer even recounted how, even when everything was going well and input was manageable, there was just that slight feeling of off-ness which made Stadia an inferior experience compared to other platforms. He said that it was hardly noticeable on Tomb Raider or Mortal Kombat, but for a game with impeccable tight controls, like Destiny, it really does start to grate. And these are the kind of experiences recounted from people with the internet speeds to really make a service like this work, with 10 times the data speeds that is recommended for the highest tier of play. Just imagine how all this'll work in the hands of the everyday gamer.
Stadia, like many predicted, appears to be dead on arrival. Some outlets are offering favourable coverage with wonder-filled eyes, like IGN, (Because everyone respects the opinions of IGN, right?) but the bad experiences are what is sticking out right now. Everyone is capable of dreaming about what this kind of tech could achieve if properly implemented, but it's the depressing truth that everyone wants to find out about. Right now that truth is that Stadia has been rushed to launch, is too expensive, and has nothing worth drawing the eyes of gamers right now. The only question going forward is whether or not Google have the tenacity to stick through this service, as it burns money for the next year at least, to chisel it into something worthwhile, or will they falter before the launch of Project Scarlett and the PS5 as many, including me, predict. Seems Google might have bit off more than they can chew, this time...
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