I played Google Stadia so you don’t have to. Here are my thoughts…
I have been playing games for as long as I remember. I started way back in the 80’s with a ZX Spectrum and now have a Playstation 4 and a Nintendo Switch. I work within the industry and see a lot of innovations come and go. Google Stadia seems interesting, very interesting.
I won’t need a power PC or the latest console hardware, just an internet connection, an optional controller and a bit of monthly money. I’m in.
How much bandwidth is required?
Google recommends 10mbps for 1080p, 35mbps to run in 4K. To push a 1080p image without sound is approx 5mbps. Google is recommending a bit more, plus we need synchronised audio with the image and handle user input.
I have more than enough so I should get a high fidelity, buttery smooth experience. Spoiler: I don’t.
Setup
There are two main ways to play Stadia on a large screen. One is using the Google Chromecast and the other a web browser. I am using a web browser. I can not talk about the Chromecast experience. One assumes it must be better than the web experience as Google offer a 4k option. Spoiler, the web option is not good.
Setup was a cinch. I already have a Google Account, as do most of us, and several PS4 controllers. You can have one month for free so trying it out won’t cost me a penny. If you do not have a Google account you’ll need to create one of those.
For hardware I am running a 2019 16" Mac Book Pro and a 50 mbps internet connection. This should be good.
From opening the Stadia web page, registering, to playing was less than 30 minutes. There is nothing to install and the only real task was connecting my PS4 controller to my MBP. Stadia recognised the controller straight away.
The Games
Roughly 20 games are offered for free, something for everyone, so no need to buy a game to try it out. I decided to try two games. An off road racing game, to see how it handled refresh rates and Hitman, to see how it handled fidelity. I have played both games on my base PS4. Neither of them rock the graphics world but both look good enough and so should be a fair test.
This could be my new way of playing and maybe, “maybe”, I won’t need the sizeable PS5.
First the racing game. I was very disappointed with this one. The graphics were muddy, the sound choppy, the resolution jumped from crystal clear to barely recognisable blur. Unplayable. If I had paid money to play this game I would have been fuming. Not a great start.
Second, Hitman.
Having played Hitman on my PS4 I immediately noticed, being the PC version, had more detail, MORE fidelity but… popins, stutter, broken sound. Not playable. The picture quality was so poor I felt I was playing a PS2 game.
I tried several other “Free” games and not one title showed any promise.
Any good news?
Loading times were significantly improved over my PS4. So an advantage there. The PS5 and XBox Series X both address loading times so even that advantage is quickly dealt with.
I immediately cancelled my Stadia subscription and will need to purchase a console in the near future to keep up with the latest games. A great premise but nowhere near ready.
Conclusion
In conclusion, don’t bother. Not yet anyway and not web browser only. 5G might make this something for the future but that future is not now.
It is a shame because I really wanted this to work. I have the bandwidth and the computing power so why did this experiment fail? I really can not answer that. It should, on paper, work really well. Stadia has been out of over 6 months and sadly it just does not work. Given the perceived time and money spent on this project perhaps it can not be done using today’s technology.
Google are big boys and they have had the time and it appears that even they can not crack the streaming question.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Google run this for a number of years then pull it as a failed experiment. Google+ anyone.
Edit. In 2023 Google closed down Google Stadia.