After months of rumors, on march 19th Google has announced Stadia, previously known as Project Yeti (Internally) or Project Stream (public), a cloud-based service that will let user play games independently of the type of smartphone, tablet or pc you are using.
Even if the user has a low performance device, it will be able to play the game in full HD at 60fps. Some games that has been shown are Assassins Creed Odyssey, previously used to demonstrate and test the service under the name of Project Stream, Doom Eternal, NBA 2K19 and Tomb Rider.
Also, Google revealed a partnership with Ubisoft, were we could image seeing more games from the French-based company coming in the future.
No Hardware needed (more or less)
The peculiarities of Stadia are that it will rely on the infrastructure of Google Server spread all over the world. Google said that he has over 7500 edge nodes (server farm spread all over the world that connected directly to Google Servers), and this type and scale of infrastructure is second to no-one.
On the server side, the California-based company, design a custom GPU, in collaboration with AMD, which has been created specifically for the service. it can perform up to 10.7 TFLOPS of compute power. More than PS4 and Xbox One X combined and putting the service in advance of what the raw power of the next generation console would be.
Always the latest specs
At launch, Google will support up to 4K gaming at 60 fps, with HDR and surround sound, but in the future, focusing on Moore’s law, we will see a more powerful Google-design GPU that can deliver the 8K resolution promised during the event. This will probably happened in 2020/2021. And because the hardware runs on Google Server, there’s no need by the user to update their PC, Notebook or smartphone to support the latest advantages.
Made by Google
Alongside the service, Google has also announced a new hardware. A controller designed specifically to be used with Stadia.
It will connect via Wi-Fi directly to Google Servers, and smartly detect on what device and what games were playing.
Also, two special buttons are included inside the controller. The first one is a capture button, that ca record video and images of the game and share it with anyone you want. The second one is a Google Assistant Button, that can be used to ask questions about the way to complete a dungeon or a specific mechanic, and it will search on YouTube a video and sowing it in front of you, pausing the session in background.
Stadia Games and Entertainment
Also, Google will become a first-party game studio, focusing on publish and create games that will run exclusively on the Stadia platform, so will probably expect to see the studio at E3 announcing new games, but Google will not only publish games, but also help developers and studios port their games into the platform.
The internet is the problem
Google can try to solve every problem by creating a more stable connection with the data center, or let you stream at 4K 60fps on YouTube, but there is a bigger issue involved. The actual internet speed of the user.
For playing at 1080p at 60fps a 25mb/s connection is suggested, but the average American has a 18mb/s connection, of course certain areas will be privileged, but there also to consider the input lag between the press of the button and the reception of the command by the platform.
When?
2019. Google has not shared any information regarding a specific period, but it will share more information during the summer, so we will hear more probably on E3 or Gamescom. The price is also a big question mark, but it will probably be a subscription-based service. It seems possible that Google could offer different prices depending on the resolution of the game. For example, 9,99$ for 1080p at 60fps, and 14,99$ for 4K, HDR gaming.
The service will be released initially in UK, US, Canada and Europe (probably in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, because the website is already translated in those languages).
