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Unfortunately this doesn't surprise me. We worked on a Stadia title before launch. We were constantly reminded by Google how big the YouTube integration would

by vhab 4y ago

Unfortunately this doesn't surprise me. We worked on a Stadia title before launch. We were constantly reminded by Google how big the YouTube integration would be, which unique killer features we absolutely had to integrate with, and more. And non of that ever materialized after launch. If Google can't even convince their own internal teams to cooperate, how do they expect studios and consumers to care the slightest for their product. It also didn't help that supporting Stadia was equivalent to supporting an entirely different new console in scope, except less battle tested and much more buggy. Meanwhile all their competitors allow existing console or Windows builds to be shipped to their platforms. And while we're sharing anecdotes, this was a fun one. For the longest time devkits were limited to 1080p, but at least the output was streamed from rack mounted servers that supported a couple of concurrent sessions. A few months before launch, they finally made 4k devkits available, except they supported only a single session, couldn't stream, and instead had to sit at a developer's desk with a monitor hooked up... Let that sink in, a streaming service's devkits couldn't stream :)

JyB 4y ago
> how big the YouTube integration would be, which unique killer features Exactly, this was advertised so much even to regular users/consumers and it genuinely seemed like it could be really cool. I'm baffled that nothing really came out in the end.
dougmwne 4y ago
From the consumer perspective, this reminds me of the new chromecast that was released without Stadia support, even though the previous chromecast supported it. Get that! A streaming stick that couldn’t stream the company’s own paid service. Preposterous!
postalrat 4y ago
IMO streaming games still has a lot of potential. Too bad Google couldn't pull it off. The Youtube stuff is only the surface of what would be possible.
- iLoveOncall 4y ago
  > IMO streaming games still has a lot of potential. Not with the current internet speed. The vast majority of people is below anything that would play "okay", and almost everyone is below a speed that would play well (1 GBPS). Until 1 GBPS is the default EVERYWHERE, streaming games has 0 potential.
  - SXX 4y ago
    Streaming problem is not about bandwidth, but about latency. With current technology and physics there nothing you can do about latency.
    - rieTohgh6 4y ago
      It is both. I tried GeForce NOW and it required only about 60Mbps - it was just a fraction of Gbit connection. Still, I sometimes struggled to keep it at that minimum. Variable bandwidth doesn't matter for file downloads or video streaming(where there is few seconds of buffer) but it makes game streaming almost unplayable.
  - ancientworldnow 4y ago
    Nah, if you can stream Netflix in 1080p or better and have low latency then game streaming works fine. I know people who do it off LTE without issue even for non competitive games.
    - iLoveOncall 4y ago
      I encourage you to watch a Netflix movie and a live video game side by side and you will see how nonsensical the comparison is.
      - drusepth 4y ago
        Doing this now... what are you expecting to be obvious from this experiment? Obviously the video game has some upstream requirements (just user input), but neither are stuttering or having any issues.
synicalx 4y ago
> a streaming service's devkits couldn't stream That is just mind boggling - how on earth were you meant to test anything properly?
traspler 4y ago
Do you think the YouTube integration and the other "killer features" you mentioned would have made Stadia more popular if they actually came to fruition? Personally I believe if the YouTube integration was ready at launch the whole Stadia story would have been very, very different. I do believe that a frictionless way to jump into a game that you are currently watching a video/stream for or even join a streamer in multiplayer with a click would have been an amazing thing!

by vhab 4y ago

JyB 4y ago

> how big the YouTube integration would be, which unique killer features Exactly, this was advertised so much even to regular users/consumers and it genuinely seemed like it could be really cool. I'm baffled that nothing really came out in the end.

dougmwne 4y ago

From the consumer perspective, this reminds me of the new chromecast that was released without Stadia support, even though the previous chromecast supported it. Get that! A streaming stick that couldn’t stream the company’s own paid service. Preposterous!

postalrat 4y ago

IMO streaming games still has a lot of potential. Too bad Google couldn't pull it off. The Youtube stuff is only the surface of what would be possible.

iLoveOncall 4y ago
> IMO streaming games still has a lot of potential. Not with the current internet speed. The vast majority of people is below anything that would play "okay", and almost everyone is below a speed that would play well (1 GBPS). Until 1 GBPS is the default EVERYWHERE, streaming games has 0 potential.
- SXX 4y ago
  Streaming problem is not about bandwidth, but about latency. With current technology and physics there nothing you can do about latency.
  - rieTohgh6 4y ago
    It is both. I tried GeForce NOW and it required only about 60Mbps - it was just a fraction of Gbit connection. Still, I sometimes struggled to keep it at that minimum. Variable bandwidth doesn't matter for file downloads or video streaming(where there is few seconds of buffer) but it makes game streaming almost unplayable.
- ancientworldnow 4y ago
  Nah, if you can stream Netflix in 1080p or better and have low latency then game streaming works fine. I know people who do it off LTE without issue even for non competitive games.
  - iLoveOncall 4y ago
    I encourage you to watch a Netflix movie and a live video game side by side and you will see how nonsensical the comparison is.
    - drusepth 4y ago
      Doing this now... what are you expecting to be obvious from this experiment? Obviously the video game has some upstream requirements (just user input), but neither are stuttering or having any issues.

synicalx 4y ago

> a streaming service's devkits couldn't stream That is just mind boggling - how on earth were you meant to test anything properly?

traspler 4y ago

Do you think the YouTube integration and the other "killer features" you mentioned would have made Stadia more popular if they actually came to fruition? Personally I believe if the YouTube integration was ready at launch the whole Stadia story would have been very, very different. I do believe that a frictionless way to jump into a game that you are currently watching a video/stream for or even join a streamer in multiplayer with a click would have been an amazing thing!