Game Services & Game Sales thread

[Michaelangelo]

Wolf among us

It’s a shame we’ll never get the sequel to this

 

[Madmick]

Finally some less subjective review of Stadia.
Here's how Stadia's input lag compares to native PC gaming

What I found rings true for other cloud gaming platforms, like Geforce Now and Shadow: Singleplayer games are mostly fine to play through the cloud, but any cloud gaming platform is going to be a no-sell for people who only play multiplayer games, even with a good connection. Here's a deeper look at side-by-side performance of Stadia vs. a local PC.

There were a few limitations to my tests: 4K isn't available via Stadia on PC; I could not connect the Stadia controller to my PC; and I could not connect my Chromecast to an Ethernet cable due to the layout of my home. (The only cable outlet is in the bedroom, which is on the opposite side of my home from the TV with the connected Chromecast.) However, I was able to conduct latency tests both on my TV and PC at the maximum wireless bandwidth possible, 150Mbps, as well as compare the results to local PC performance. While Google Stadia recommends 35Mpbs minimum for 4K gaming, we recommend at least 100Mbps (and 50Mbps for 1080p) if you want smooth play with a stable resolution.

All the below testing was performed on a 5Ghz wireless connection, and latency testing was filmed at 240 fps, counting the frames between key/button press and the action on screen to get the latency in milliseconds. The native latency of my TV (which is quite low) and monitor factors into each result, but most of it will come from my internet connect and how many 'hops' it takes to connect my home internet to Google's servers and back again.

 

[rob mafia]

 

[Madmick]

It's not quite there yet, but it's a promising start.
https://displaylag.com/console-latency-exploring-video-game-input-lag/



*Edit* I should point out that most reviews are highly negative. Here's GN:

 

[jefferz]

It's not quite there yet, but it's a promising start.
https://displaylag.com/console-latency-exploring-video-game-input-lag/
View attachment 681133

105ms for MK10?
Lagging mother fucker. Get that ass banned.

 

[ToxicShocker]

Anyone else feel like Steam's sales are underwhelming these days?

They lost access to all the big titles and I think their business is suffering because of it.

Are you referring to indie or small game sales?

 

[KaNesDeath]

It's not quite there yet, but it's a promising start.

Its five year old data with games designed to operate at a 30 frames per second cap on below 60hz televisions not made for gaming and vsync on. Input lag on consoles by default are already high because of those factors.

 

[rikwebb]

Venturebeat has done some testing on Stadia data use on RDR 2, looking like 119mb per minute at 1080p which works out to nearly 7gb per hour. Wasn't the best way of testing in the article but it at least highlights the possible usage.

https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/19/google-stadia-data-usage/

For comparison Netflix uses around 3gb per hour for 1080 and 7gb for 4K

 

[Madmick]

Its five year old data with games designed to operate at a 30 frames per second cap on below 60hz televisions not made for gaming and vsync on. Input lag on consoles by default are already high because of those factors.

Irrelevant. That "5-year-old data" (so old!) was taken for the current gen of consoles, and provided a gameplay experience that the mainstream obviously found entirely acceptable. It's an acceptable benchmark to be "good enough", as Apple fans like to say.

Of course, they're not there, yet, and PC Gamer clearly had the best experience of any reviewer (likely from their competence with tech, and more sophisticated office setup, as well as potentially a closer proximity to Google servers, but of course, their expertise and equipment isn't the norm among the mainstream).

Pretty bad launch by Google. Not sure if it's so bad it will sink the program, but I doubt that, considering how rapidly cloud gaming has accelerated across the industry. I'm seeing more ads for the subscription services in my OP lately than I am for traditional gaming.

 

[Hyperglide]

Massive early Black Friday Xbox Live sale with over 600 games (and DLC) active for Gold members only, for 2 more days, till the main event of course.

USA:
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/promotions/sales/black-friday/xbox-games

Canada:
https://www.xbox.com/en-CA/promotions/sales/black-friday/xbox-games

 

[KaNesDeath]

Pretty bad launch by Google. Not sure if it's so bad it will sink the program, but I doubt that, considering how rapidly cloud gaming has accelerated across the industry. I'm seeing more ads for the subscription services in my OP lately than I am for traditional gaming.

It was. Bellulars review had some good insight. Stadia appears to work best on older laptop/Pc hardware through Chrome(?).

 

[Madmick]

GN has expanded their coverage of Stadia with additional concrete testing to add to what PC Gamer has done. Charts start at 7:39. Ironically, it's at the 4K resolution that it comes closest to parity.



Although I did appreciate this small piece because I find it strange that the most vociferous negging of Stadia I've encountered has come from PC gamers. I'm not sure why this group seems more threatened by Stadia, when the very reasons people choose PCs clearly firewall it from any meaningful immediate competition, and in fact, ironically, these gamers have the most to gain:
Google Stadia has ushered in a new breed of 'Console Master Race' knuckleheads

In case you were wondering, it's largely because the games need to be optimized to work with a Linux host and Vulkan. That's something Google needs to address.

PC gamers have more to gain than nearly anybody from the success of Stadia, and should be cheering it on. If Stadia were to flourish it would balloon the number of games that run on Vulkan. PC gamers already know that Vulkan is the best API that has ever been built. It only has one, tiny, but debilitating drawback: nobody codes their games to support it.

Furthermore, all gamers would benefit from more AAA titles being developed for Linux. Once a game can run on Linux it's a mere half step away from universal compatibility across operating systems.


*Edit*
Somebody is happy Google is blowing the launch:
Microsoft's Xbox streaming app isn't official yet, but it's already way better than Google's new video game service

 

[KaNesDeath]

PC gamers have more to gain than nearly anybody from the success of Stadia, and should be cheering it on.

Stadia doesnt move the bar anywhere. Latency wasnt resolved and Googles user hardware is the weakest link. Then you add in the requirements of needing three Google accounts and a Google Pixel cellphone to even register the product. In a monthly subscription service that the user is still mandated to purchase games at full price.

Future of this and other services are approaching it all wrong. Ones local hardware needs to be the server. Service game servers are only used if the user has better ping/routing to it. Where in single player games if a network slowdown occurs the game enters slowmode until resolved like what xCloud is doing. Can even take it a step further by creating a mesh network of idle local area consoles/Pc's.

Google didnt even bother introducing something equivalent to Steam Datagram Relays to reduce latency.

 

[Danger Dave]

google stadia only uses 9 gigs an hour for hd. that means if you do not watch tv or do anything on the internet you can play video games for 3.7 hours a day every day before going over a 1 terabyte data cap.

stadia seems like a good idea but streaming video games is fucking brutal on data usage.

 

[method115]

google stadia only uses 9 gigs an hour for hd. that means if you do not watch tv or do anything on the internet you can play video games for 3.7 hours a day every day before going over a 1 terabyte data cap.

stadia seems like a good idea but streaming video games is fucking brutal on data usage.

Yep it's just not realistic right now with data caps. Comcast starts charging me once I go over 1Tb.

 

[Danger Dave]

Yep it's just not realistic right now with data caps. Comcast starts charging me once I go over 1Tb.

yea its funny how fast 1 tb gets used up. we pay $70 a month for it. the first month was crazy until we figured out you can lower the quality in netflix and hulu from 3 gigs per hour down to .3 gigs per hour. We were using about 55 gigs per day just on TV before we did that now it is down to about 6-8 gigs

thats just TV, I usually upload like 200-300 gigs of videos per month as well lol

 

[method115]

yea its funny how fast 1 tb gets used up. we pay $70 a month for it. the first month was crazy until we figured out you can lower the quality in netflix and hulu from 3 gigs per hour down to .3 gigs per hour. We were using about 55 gigs per day just on TV before we did that now it is down to about 6-8 gigs

thats just TV, I usually upload like 200-300 gigs of videos per month as well lol

Yep when it was me and my wife we had no issues avoiding the data cap. My daughter decided she wanted to live with me at the end of her summer and we made it happen. During the next summer is when we started hitting the cap. She would stream TV all day and we would hit that cap every single month. Had to limit her to only streaming once I got home from work and even then we were just barely making it. Now I've downloaded any TV show they rewatch a lot. For instance Friends. My wife watches the shit out of that show so I downloaded the whole thing in HD.

My daughter also started working now so it's not even really an issue anymore. It's gone back up a bit since I got the 4k\HDR TV and I refuse to lower the quality because well I got a 4k\HDR TV to use it.

 

[Danger Dave]

Yep when it was me and my wife we had no issues avoiding the data cap. My daughter decided she wanted to live with me at the end of her summer and we made it happen. During the next summer is when we started hitting the cap. She would stream TV all day and we would hit that cap every single month. Had to limit her to only streaming once I got home from work and even then we were just barely making it. Now I've downloaded any TV show they rewatch a lot. For instance Friends. My wife watches the shit out of that show so I downloaded the whole thing in HD.

My daughter also started working now so it's not even really an issue anymore. It's gone back up a bit since I got the 4k\HDR TV and I refuse to lower the quality because well I got a 4k\HDR TV to use it.

if you pay a couple or few hundred a month you can get unlimited data usage. I asked if I could just get the $70 1 TB plan twice for the same house and they refused. There is literally no other company to get internet from at my house so they could charge $300 a month and I would have to pay it.

My friend used to work for comcast and said they are the worst company ever and were voted as the worst customer service out of all companies earlier this decade which is why they changed their name to xfinity. On the bright side he used to hook me up with free installation, free internet and tv, and free premium channels and UFC fights.

Pro Tip: If you order a UFC fight and it happens to go out or skip even for a couple seconds you can call them up and get a full refund and keep watching the fight. Dont hate the player hate the game.

 

[method115]

if you pay a couple or few hundred a month you can get unlimited data usage. I asked if I could just get the $70 1 TB plan twice for the same house and they refused. There is literally no other company to get internet from at my house so they could charge $300 a month and I would have to pay it.

My friend used to work for comcast and said they are the worst company ever and were voted as the worst customer service out of all companies earlier this decade which is why they changed their name to xfinity. On the bright side he used to hook me up with free installation, free internet and tv, and free premium channels and UFC fights.

Pro Tip: If you order a UFC fight and it happens to go out or skip even for a couple seconds you can call them up and get a full refund and keep watching the fight. Dont hate the player hate the game.

Yea if I pay $100\month I can get unlimited but fuck that I don't want to pay it. We barely go over and it's really just during the summer when my daughter is home all day that we have to worry about it. Xfinity is also the only internet provider I have also.

 

[Danger Dave]

Yea if I pay $100\month I can get unlimited but fuck that I don't want to pay it. We barely go over and it's really just during the summer when my daughter is home all day that we have to worry about it. Xfinity is also the only internet provider I have also.

you sound like a normal person, funny how normal people are using so much data now. comcast started losing money because nobody (well you might be older method since you have a daughter) younger than 40 that knows anything is using cable anymore so they decided to pump up internet pricing. Comcast internet for the fastest speed and no data limit used to be 19.95 10 years ago.

My old neighbor pays $250 a month for phone, internet and cable now (dont even get me started on phone service in homes lol).

Back in the golden age of cutting the cord I was paying almost nothing a month for a TracPhone (aka a breaking bad burner phone), $19.95 for internet, and $5 for netflix back when they actually had stuff to watch.

TLDR; how did the world survive without internet. Most people dont know you can get almost 100 channels just by connecting an antenna to your TV.......