Who's using Stadia (in any format)

[Zak33]

Hands up if you're "in"

So far I don't know anyone who is.. hence asking.

[Ttaskmaster]

Are you?

I'm still not sold on game streaming, mainly because phone gaming always sucks and it kills the battery.
As is, I'm using Blue Stacks to play on PC the few phone games that are actually entertaining.

[Zak33]

No I'm not... I'm intrigued to know if anyone here is and what it's like

[Ttaskmaster]

I could have a look for you if you like?
It seems to be free and compatible even with my Galaxy S5...

[Output]

I'm certainly not, as I think we're still in the OnLive situation again (except for Google probably being able to fund Stadia for as long as it wants to).

Namely, connections overall not being fast and reliable enough for it to be realistically feasible for many.

Plus I've got no desire for any type of portable gaming anyway, if I want to play something I'd rather run it straight from my own hardware and see it on my monitor.

[Zak33]

Ah but it's also for people at home, on good internet connetions, but who have low powered PC's or even no PC, to play on their TV

[Ttaskmaster]

Ah but it's also for people at home, on good internet connetions, but who have low powered PC's or even no PC, to play on their TV

But not for people who can't even get a 1GB fibre company to reliably install good internet....

[Spud1]

I don't have one personally, but a suc...friend at work bought one and we got to try it when we were still in the office.

Keep in mind that we have a gigabit connection, and we were trying destiny 2 with the Stadia controller (which was "OK" but not up to the Xbox or Switch Pro controller standard).

Destiny 2 looked great tbh, especially when standing still - no obvious compression/artifacts on screen and it sounded good too. Not that we had one side by side, but almost indistinguishable from an Xbox or playstation in terms of looks.

It wasn't a great experience though, purely because of the input lag. This is obviously a personal thing as not everyone is sensitive to it, but I found that trying to turn the character just felt laggy..some fairly obvious "snap" effects at times. Strangely enough it felt worse when out in the open exploring rather than mid firefight, but either way, it felt off almost from the start.

Imo it wasn't good enough for fast paced gaming (can't imagine just how horrible it would be playing something as fluid as Doom eternal on it!) but would be fine for more casual, slower paced puzzle games or even RTS (if you had a keyboard/mouse).

Add on top the fact you have to buy all your games again at inflated prices to use them on the service and I just don't see a future for it. The Geforce now model is much better and quite frankly the service works better for me - I can genuinely have a competitive game of PUBG on Geforce Now and although there was noticeably more compression that Stadia, the input lag was almost zero...certainly low enough for me.

I feel sorry for those duped by Google in a way - massive missed opportunity. I am sure Google will work to reduce input lag etc but users will likely abandon it before that point imo.

[Zak33]

Cheers Spud1.. that mirrors the only one person who I know tried it.

[Terbinator]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...ag-is-too-high

Lag a killer here too.

Although not Stadia, xCloud works great in my own experience on my phone using MS' servers for Halo 5.

[moizhaq99]

Nope

[hammy434]

I gave it a try a while back when they were offering it free. Was actually a lot better than I expected in terms of latency, but still noticeable in some instances.

[idasbot]

I bought Cyberpunk 2077 on stadia with promotion bandle controller and chromecast all for £49
to be honest it runs great, I was shocked how good it works on Stadia

[Laxet]

I really did try it and gave up in the end, I just couldn't get used to the latency on my primary gaming system, I performed noticably worse and I'd get frustrated when the latency made me lose in game etc.

I no longer use stadia but I often do use GeForce Now if I'm away from home or not at my main PC. In those scenarios only I find game streaming is acceptable.

[Leginine]

Tried out the trial just to check it out. It only had Destiny 2 or another Destiny for free and the game didn't capture me so I didn't bother continuing - I'm not going to pay for a digital game on a platform whose owners are chronic project killers.

[Spud1]

So we're some 20 months or so since this thread was started - and I wanted to offer an update on my last comment here.

I bought myself a stadia last month - not for stadia itself but more as its currently £20 for a chromecast ultra (which I wanted) and you get a stadia controller chucked in with a 3 month "pro" sub.

I have been playing Hitman on it this weekend, and I have to say my experience is improved from last time. Much less input lag (to the point I never actually noticed it in general gameplay), and well, it just "worked". I did notice some compression artifacts in darker areas, but overall...it worked well, and did exactly what I wanted.

The standout feature for me mirrored what Sky Q promised a few years ago - I was playing hitman on my "main" TV downstairs, but decided to move rooms so the OH could watch a film there instead. I went upstairs, turned on the bedroom TV and within 2 minutes was back in the game, at the same point I left it.

I am starting to see a future for this kind of service now for that flexibility alone - it really can work....yet it still has a major issue - the price & revenue model. Out of curiosity (and the fact Google gave me a £10 stadia credit) I had a poke around the store and the prices of the individual games floored me. Lets say I really enjoyed Hitman and I wanted to play season 2....

cheapest option is £54.99. Or if you want the full game you need the gold edition, which is £74.99

Plus to play those games at 4k and/or with 5.1 sound, you have to keep paying for Stadia pro. It's just crazy expensive considering you can buy Hitman 2 Gold for £15 on PC right now from a reseller, or more typically around £20 on steam when it's not just been on sale (right now, its actually a similar price to Stadia - but you'd be crazy to pay that).

Same story is repeated on their other AAA titles - roughly 10-15% more than the PC steam price (when not on sale), plus the sub.

I think I could start to get past the monthly fee too given the benefits it can offer...but this whole walled garden approach to the store and games just makes it a non starter. I would really like the flexibility to play on any screen just by carrying the controller & CCU, and to be able to carry over progress/make use of cloud saves or *something* to make it viable...but I can't stomach paying the fee, PLUS more than the RRP for a AAA game that I can only play on Stadia. Really tough sell.

Google did a great thing by effectively dropping the hardware cost to buy in - but they (along with the publishers, who are likely the driving force) are going to kill it with their pricing.

The only company making moves in the right direction here are Ubisoft with their subscription model - but £15 a month is a lot to pay just to play one of their many "hunt the question mark" clones (or Anno), especially since you still need the separate Stadia Pro sub.

Nice idea, and the tech now works imo...but pricing kills it.