GAMES, GOOGLE AND FAILED ASPIRATIONS

Along with the new decade comes not only a whole new generation of video game consoles, but the first real glimpses into the “future” of gaming.

At the tail end of 2019, Google officially released to the world its premium video game streaming service, Google Stadia, which was swiftly met with mediocre reviews from audiences and users alike.

While initial interest in the streaming platform was positive, due to the poorly handled release of the service and the apparent imperfections of the technology still being quite noticeable, the project already seems destined for the graveyard, after only two months on the market. Needless to say, the service is starting to look like a big disappointment for Google.

Due to the inadequate internet speeds experienced throughout much of the United States, Stadia was never going to be an option for the majority of the public, but it’s starting to seem like Stadia isn’t really for anyone.

Despite reassurances that Google’s new low-latency technology would both improve and perhaps even actively reduce latency, the fact of the matter is very much the opposite, with input lag persisting. Though not all Stadia subscribers have experienced detrimental latency, gigabit internet speeds, which greatly improve the quality of the streaming, are both expensive and widely unavailable to much of the general population, which makes the platform, at best, a less ideal way to play your video games.

Even when the service is working as intended, there are still some compromises you’ll have to deal with as a Stadia user, such as the active resolution scaling, which is supposed to help maintain a steady frame rate when your internet speeds fluctuate, but in reality, just results in a muddy image.

At this point, the only real saving grace of Stadia is its portability. Being able to stream the newest games on your phone, tablet, computer, or any random TV is a compelling idea. However, apparently not compelling enough, as the Stadia app for android has barely broken the 500,000 download mark. While those numbers are nothing to smirk at, they’re still just a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions of downloads recorded by other popular apps on the Google Play store.

It also doesn’t help that you have to  pay $129 for the Stadia premier edition, which is currently the only available option. The spending doesn’t stop there, either. If you actually intend on using the service, you’ll have to cough up another $60 for one of the few, relatively dated video games that are offered on Stadia.

Unfortunately for Google, it seems the company’s confidence has gotten the better of its leaders in their attempt to corner a virgin market. While streaming is undoubtedly the future of gaming, Google has fallen prey to the same pitfalls of those who came before them. Famously, Onlive attempted a version of a video game streaming platform in the early 2010s, followed by Sony’s short-lived Playstation Now service a few years later, both of which failed due to the same latency issues that plague Stadia today.

Unlike streaming a movie, there is so much more information that needs to be sent and received by a device streaming a video game, and simply put, the internet infrastructure of America is simply not up to snuff. Unless the service significantly reduces in price and can improve its latency issues, the future will just have to wait a few more years.

Advocate Staff