Could Stadia Be The Ultimate “Gaming System”?!!
Today Google unveiled their “gaming system” or for a better word their cloud gaming service Stadia. While this is by no means a new phenomenon as other companies like Sony’s PlayStation Now service, and Nvidia’s Geforce Now, the latter of which is still in Beta, has been around for some time, Google seems to be taking things much further.
For starters, Stadia will be accessible through your basic web browser, and a game controller will be available for purchase allowing for wireless access by utilizing your own wireless router connection though you will be able to use other compatible PC controllers if you choose. With some powerful hardware behind this new gaming service, Google boasts that users will be able to game at 4k 60fps with HDR support. As you may have already guessed, the quality of your resolution will be greatly dependent on your internet’s bandwidth and information on that is pretty sparse at the moment.
Of course, we are all about playing online here, which is one of the reasons Stadia has piqued our interest. One of the major talking points of this big reveal had much to do with the multiplayer online and what it could mean for the online experience being completely run on the cloud. Google is aiming to tackle the apparent chaos that is the network infrastructure and they want to do this through a predictive latency method. On top of this, they also have guaranteed that cross-platform compatibility will be apart of their service as well.
This all seems well and good but what exactly does this mean for fighting games online. Well, so far, things don’t seem quite favorable for the upcoming service as initial latency tests from the fine folks at Digital Foundry don’t look too good at the moment:
For as long as gaming on the cloud has been a thing, latency has been a pretty big issue, though many applications like Parsec, which is aimed at giving players access to multiplayer online through a remote connection and has a lot of buzz in the PC gaming world, have been trying to tackle this issue, it has not done much to combat the issue of latency..at least not the way Roll Back has managed to tackle this issue.
The verdict is still out on Stadia as a new gaming platform. While we certainly see the future benefits of gaming on the cloud as the technology continues to make improvements, we still feel it will be a long time before it becomes the more preferred way to play fighting games especially.
There is still a ton of information that hasn’t quite been made available to the public as of yet in terms of games and hardware requirements but we will certainly keep on eye on this moving forward and update you with any important details we may come across. You can check out the official website for Stadia for additional details.
About the Author
thec0re3 Founder of Fighting Games Online and self proclaimed "entertainment techie", thec0re3 takes immense enjoyment out of merging his love for video games and technology to educate, create, and participate in something he has enjoyed for more years than he would ever admit to.
