Does the future of gaming lie in streaming? Google surely thinks so and is betting heavily on it. As scheduled, the company provided details about its platform ahead of E3 during its first Stadia Connect streamed today.

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The D Day is sometime in November of this year, when $129 will get you a Stadia Founder's Edition that comes bundled with an exclusive Night Blue Stadia Controller, a Google Chromecast Ultra for streaming to your TV, Destiny 2: The Collection, an exclusive Founder’s Stadia Name, and three months of Stadia Pro without charge for yourself, and three months of Stadia Pro to give away to a friend. With this bundle you can play across laptops, desktops, Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a2 with cross-screen early access from day one.

Note that the Founder Edition bundle is the only way to access Stadia this year. Other subscription services will open up in 2020. Stadia Pro, which is what you get with the Founder's Edition, is priced at $9.99 per month, allows you to play games up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with HDR and 5.1 surround sound. The free Stadia Base service which launches next year allows you to buy and keep games capped at 1080p and 60 frames per second with stereo sound but does not allow you to access games for free nor get special discounts which Pro subscribers can enjoy. The controler alone costs $69.

Regarding connectivity requirements, Google claims that "Stadia works across various connections from 35 Mbps down to a recommended minimum of 10 Mbps" and the platform with match resolution from 4K to 720p according to your network’s speed. Here's a nice infographic for that:

As for games, Google announced the following today, with more to come in the future:

• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2,​
• Doom Eternal, Doom (2016)​
• Rage 2, The Elder Scrolls Online​
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood​
• Destiny 2​
• Get Packed​
• Grid​
• Metro Exodus​
• Thumper​
• Farming Simulator 19​
• Baldur's Gate 3​
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid​
• Football Manager​
• Samurai Shodown​
• Final Fantasy XV​
• Tomb Raider Definitive Edition​
• Rise of the Tomb Raider​
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider​
• NBA 2K​
• Borderlands 3​
• Gylt​
• Mortal Kombat 11​
• Darksiders Genesis​
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey​
• Just Dance​
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint​
• Tom Clancy's The Division 2​
• Trials Rising​
• The Crew 2​

At launch the Stadia platform will be available in the following 14 countries: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

The service will be accessible via a Chromecast Ultra, a regular Chrome browser on any computer, or a Pixel 3/3a smartphone, with support for more smartphones planned in the future.

What do you think of the Stadia after the announcement? Will you be subscribing for a Founder's Edition or you will wait and see how it fares?

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[SkittleDash]

A free trial would be nice... You know... To see if it works well with you.

 

[Dominator211]

I really don't know how i feel about game streaming still too much that can go wrong

 

[x65943]

If they consistently add new games to the platform $10/month is very reasonable.

I am a little skeptical that the service will have newer games - I think we are gonna get more of a Netflix scenario with older outdated games flooding the platform.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Misleading information from Google spreading like wildfire. The only "free" game available at launch is going to be Destiny 2. The others will have to purchased separately, in addition to the subscription price. Per the official Stadia site.

 

[CoolStarDood]

If anyone could get game streaming to work well, it would be google.

Still, not super sure this is gonna work.

 

[tech3475]

I think I'll just stick with traditional methods for now.

I wouldn't want to invest in a platform like this for the usual game streaming reasons, especially Google who are known to drop stuff.

That said, I think now is the best time to launch such a service since with the next gen systems coming up, this could potentially be the cheapest console-like entry into the next gen.

 

[Rabbid4240]

Hmm, you guys got Mario? No? Sonic? No? Mega Man? No? Input Lag? N-- Oh you do?

 

[Condarkness_XY]

Have never been a fan of streaming services. So I'll skip this one and head to what ever doesn't stream.

 

[x65943]

I think I'll just stick with traditional methods for now.

I wouldn't want to invest in a platform like this for the usual game streaming reasons, especially Google who are known to drop stuff.

That said, I think now is the best time to launch such a service since with the next gen systems coming up, this could potentially be the cheapest console-like entry into the next gen.

Well, considering you don't need to buy the controller at all, and can play with mouse/keyboard or your own controller - the platform has no cost other than $10/month to start.

 

[WAUthethird]

Kinda silly they make "no waiting for downloads" a selling point, when the speeds required make waiting for downloads much less tedious.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Well, considering you don't need to buy the controller at all, and can play with mouse/keyboard or your own controller - the platform has no cost other than $10/month to start.

To start, yes. But as was pointed out - you'll still need to pay for the majority of new games separately. Unless you only want to play Destiny 2 for an undermined amount of time until they add more than one "free" game. And who knows what the next one will be. All of those 25 titles but one need to be purchased separately from the subscription.

Edit: Don't want to be confusing people with "to start". Some people may see that and think all of those games are included "to start".

 

[WAUthethird]

To start, yes. But as was pointed out - you'll still need to pay for the majority of new games separately. Unless you only want to play Destiny 2 for an undermined amount of time until they add more than one "free" game. And who knows what the next one will be. All of those 25 titles but one need to be purchased separately from the subscription.

Yes. If I were to ever invest in this platform, I'd just buy the games separately - no need for 4K surround.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Yes. If I were to ever invest in this platform, I'd just buy the games separately - no need for 4K surround.

If I were to invest, I would only do it because surround IS included if you have the required speeds. 4K, even though my TV is 4K, HDR10, Dolby Vision capable... I really don't care much about 4K gaming. I can't watch movies that only have 2 channel audio either (unless they were only ever released with 2 channel audio). A good portion of the experience and immersion for me is 5.1+ channel audio.

 

[Mythical]

That 60 fps though. You can stream at much better fps before hitting 4k resolutions. I stream at 120 for instance

 

[D34DL1N3R]

That 60 fps though. You can stream at much better fps before hitting 4k resolutions. I stream at 120 for instance

As much as most people will disagree, I really don't like much above 60-80fps. It makes everything look/feel (imo) the same as the "soap opera effect" when people turn on the stupid motion enhancement feature on their television when watching movies/tv. But I do completely understand your point regardless.

 

[Clydefrosch]

...why can't you let me decide at what resolution i want to play?
dynamic is going to be so annoying, it's constantly gonna wobble up and down :/

 

[tech3475]

Well, considering you don't need to buy the controller at all, and can play with mouse/keyboard or your own controller - the platform has no cost other than $10/month to start.

For now you need the starter pack and even when that requirement drops, I can still see it being a common option since not everyone may want to rely on a computer for e.g. TV.

That said, I do think they need to spread the usable devices rapidly, similar to how Steam is on Samsung TVs.

 

[Godofcheese]

Good luck playing Mortal Kombat haha

They still haven't said anything about latency and input lag
But I doubt it will be good enough for fighting games.

 

[tiamat999]

Well isn't the main purpose for single player games and campaigns so you can still have fun with no internet