As long as I can remember, video games have always been a luxury item, played on specifically designed hardware, developed and formulated to give you the best experience. Technology and the innovation that comes with it has never been cheap and gaming is no different.
Even in this day and age of mass production and automation, the next iteration of the most popular gaming console is rumoured to cost in the region of £500-600, roughly an entire two week’s wages on the National Living Wage in the UK.
Very much a luxury item.
“But, you don’t have to play games on a console.”
This is entirely true, but the most popular smartphones retail for roughly 1.5 - 3x the cost of a Playstation 4 and any gaming PC that’ll give you console-level performance is going to set you back at least £800.
And that’s before you even begin to shell out on the games.
But smartphone gaming in particular triggered a lot of direct and indirect changes in the console industry, especially in the way that they monetise their products and services. And in the streaming era, gaming needed to be ahead of the game.
First digital downloads all but killed the physical market outside of special and limited edition runs. Then Sony’s PS+ model really set the trend for what’s happening much more frequently now. The ability to pay for a subscription-based service that would entitle you to a catalogue of games each cycle at no extra cost changed the way people thought about gaming, particularly from a financial standpoint.
By no means was this the first, or even the best model of its type, but certainly the one that made a lot of people sit up and take notice.
Since then, PS Now, Xbox Game Pass, Origin, Discord, Epic and Humble all offer popular and somewhat unique takes on various assets of subscription-based game ownership/streaming, but none have really claimed a real foothold on the marketplace as a whole.
That is, until Stadia.
Stadia presents a ton of new questions mixed in amongst a lot of familiarity.
Firstly, Stadia is Google’s first major entry into the gaming industry and they’re doing everything differently. They have no first-party studios of their own, instead opting to collaborate with a mix of indie and major studios to deliver their launch catalogue.
Now, Google are known to often take two main approaches to business: watch everyone try, then go in and do it better (Search, Email, Digital Accounts) or buy the guys doing it best (Video Streaming, Advert Management etc).
I feel like this gaming venture falls firmly into the first category, whilst there will undoubtedly be acquisitions that have and will happen along the way.
But here’s what google is doing differently and, as time will show, better.
Streaming:
Google have mastered streaming for a while now, having acquired and maintained the largest online video streaming platform in the world in YouTube. They can deliver 4K video seamlessly to any device with the pixels and connection required to handle it, and as I’ll explain in a moment, that’s hugely key in Stadia’s delivery.
Processing:
Google are doing all of the processing at their side using the insanely powerful machines that users of the Cloud Platform may be familiar with. In short, they massively outspec all of the computing devices in your possession put together.
With this, all they’re streaming back to your device is video data. Your input is served via the controller (and experiences naturally will differ very slightly with third party devices) but none of the data sent back to the screen device is actually game data beyond video and audio. All you’re getting is a near-to-no latency feedback of the game you’re playing with none of the hardware constraints. Say hello to AAA gaming on your smartphone.
Portability:
The success of the Nintendo Switch confirmed and capitalised on what gamers have been stressing forever: true portability is a big deal. Being able to seamlessly take your gaming experience on the go has been a huge success for Nintendo, but now Google are taking it a step further. Literally any screen device, whether Google made or otherwise, will be able to stream Stadia Gameplay as long as it has a web browser.
Pricing:
All of this is happening at a $9.99 price point, on par with, or cheaper than all its competition, whilst being more accessible than all of them.
What does this change?
Nothing, but also everything.
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Steam et al will all continue to exist in their spaces, their next range of consoles will continue to sell brilliantly and the console gaming market will continue to expand.
However, in the streaming space, Google have immediately placed themselves as the leader with this offering and technology and in the same way that Nintendo made its comeback with the Wii by making itself the cost-effective, accessible, family friendly option, Google are doing the exact same here, but also have the resources available to stay at the top for a long time, in an area that the marketplace has been slowly moving towards for a while.
The timing couldn’t have been better and if they can deliver on a set of promises that seem not only insane, but also completely within the realms of possibility for Google, Stadia and game streaming in general, has one hell of a bright future.
Shogun Ash.
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