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It's time for another little roundup of happenings around Google Stadia, the Linux-powered game streaming service.

Firstly, for anyone who does have the Founder/Premier Edition or were sent a Buddy Pass, the Pro games for February have been announced. At this point, it does seem like Google are running out of Steam as they're giving away their own exclusive GYLT and Metro Exodus. Samurai Shodown and Rise of the Tomb Raider for Pro ends January 31, so you need to claim them before that date to keep them with your subscription. Google did also announce new Pro deals here.

Google also did an official "Stadia Savepoint" news post on the official Google blog, going over what they've been doing but there's nothing new there since they already announced the big stuff like 120 games coming to Stadia across this year including some timed-exclusives.

The problem right now though, is that people really are already losing their patience with Google and the Stadia team. It's been well over a month since a new game released on it, they've not talked about Stadia Base lately for people to know when their friends can also join them and try it out and there's an increasing amount of posts complaining on their official Reddit like this massively upvoted post.

My own subscription to Stadia Pro ends on February 21 and right now, nothing is pulling me in to think that I should renew this. The ability to play Destiny 2 on any Linux machine with a Chromium browser is nice but it's really not that big a pull to keep an active monthly subscription for. GYLT is definitely interesting, especially since it's a Stadia exclusive but again—not worth keeping a subscription for.

Considering how stale Stadia already feels, how slow they've been to build it up and how Founders/Premier were basically Beta testers, Google should really extend everyone's Pro until they set a date for Stadia Base. That would be a small but worthwhile gesture. Otherwise, I think they might be shocked at how many let their sub lapse like me.

If you missed it, the latest version of the Unity game engine now supports building for Stadia - including the special features like State Share and Stream Connect.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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12 comments

Liam Dawe Jan 29, 2020
People losing patience with what is basically and early access product. The service hasn't even rolled out to everyone yet and people are whining. This is why gamers get the reputation they do.
Being a little hyperbolic there aren't we? This isn't whining, this is Google being bad at communicating. People didn't buy into an Early Access/Beta test. I think just throwing out the valid complaints about how the service is doing as "whining" and "gamers being gamers" is pretty ridiculous.

I would be willing to bet cash that there will be new games added to coincide with the actual release of the service for anyone to sign up.
Well, duh. You would hope so.
Eike Jan 29, 2020
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Making plans for weekend... ;)
Eike Jan 29, 2020
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Being a little hyperbolic there aren't we? This isn't whining, this is Google being bad at communicating.

Just with calling it early access or beta or something, people would have been way more happy I think...
KuJo Jan 29, 2020
Guys, the service is not even 90 days old!

In my eyes, that really is "whining." Because in my eyes, many things are seen in a wrong light and a perceived situation becomes reality.

This Reddit article gets to the heart of the matter:
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/ev97sk/stadia_community_culture_a_refresher_and_looking/

The bottom line is that we are well placed with what Stadia has already delivered.

So I'm not going to join this choir of naysayers. I'll put things in a different order and look forward to the things that are still to come.

And I encourage everyone to see for themselves. If you look at it you see the real shine and not just the black patina that is on the outside because of all the whining.


Last edited by KuJo on 29 January 2020 at 11:50 am UTC
0aTT Jan 29, 2020
And there is the first Linux exclusive title!

;P
TheSHEEEP Jan 29, 2020
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Guys, the service is not even 90 days old!

In my eyes, that really is "whining." Because in my eyes, many things are seen in a wrong light and a perceived situation becomes reality.

And I encourage everyone to see for themselves. If you look at it you see the real shine and not just the black patina that is on the outside because of all the whining.
The problem lies with Google themselves, and people willing to look at how Google actually behaves now and how they did in the past figured that out by now.

Everybody (except Google, I guess) knows by now the service was started almost a year too early. Google had no need to push this thing out when they did - and they did it anyway.

This project has all the same markings as all the other failed Google projects from Google Plus, to Hangouts, to Glasses, to...
And where did all of those projects end up? Abandoned. And those are just the most famous ones.
Which is extremely likely the same fate that awaits Stadia.

Anyone wanting to spend money on Stadia - or rather, single games on Stadia - should know that they are spending money on something that might just cease to be usable based on how Google "feels" about it.
And since Stadia is (and rightfully so) getting mostly negative press and reactions by now, the chances of Google wanting to potentially sink even more resources aren't exactly high.

Google is quite simply the last company one should put their faith in when it comes to struggling projects.
They shoot out ideas and see what sticks and what doesn't. And Stadia clearly isn't very sticky.

That has nothing to do with whining, I sure wish the situation was different, it is just an accurate analysis of the situation. Spending money on it right now is just not a good idea.

And the reactions Stadia gets are also partly so sour because all of this would have been perfectly avoidable. This sinking ship situation was entirely unnecessary - and that does not inspire confidence, either.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 29 January 2020 at 12:36 pm UTC
SirLootALot Jan 29, 2020
Whaha people express their dislike and lack of interest in a service that I want to succeed and give their reasons for that Uhaaaa
Why is everybody whining?!
Purple Library Guy Jan 29, 2020
Google is an incredibly huge company and, as far as I know, very profitable. They are not in a situation where they have to release products before they are ready, or run projects on a shoestring. They have scads of programmers and project managers and oceans of PR flacks. So if they release a project to much fanfare, they have the option of that project being ready and fleshed out upon release.
If it isn't, if people find it uncompelling and various elements that would make it so fail to materialize with little communication about how that situation is changing, I'm afraid I don't have a ton of sympathy like I would if it was a couple of struggling indie programmers making something.
dpanter Jan 29, 2020
Google 2019: Everyone is going to love Stadia! We have 120+ games Coming Soon and everyone can play in 4K 60 fps!!

Everyone: No.

Google 2020: <surprised_pikachu.jpg>
Eike Feb 1, 2020
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There's an additional free game for Stadia Pro users: Thumper.
KuJo Feb 2, 2020
Whining! Why?

For the 129 bucks you got: 1x Chromecast Ultra; retails for Amazon-69.99 Best Buy-69.99
Your average console gaming controller Xbox- Best buy: Xbox one wired remote: 19.99 Xbox one Elite series 2: 179.99 Xbox one wireless: 59.99
Amazon: Xbox wired: 24.99 Xbox Elite: 172.99 Xbox wireless: 40.99
PS4- Best buy: 59.99
Amazon: 45.99
Switch- Best Buy: Joy con: 69.99 Nintendo Switch Pro Controller: 69.99
Amazon: Joy con: 69.99 Nintendo Switch Pro Controller: 59.99
Stadia Controller: Google: 69.99

So with this road map we have a CCU and a remote for a total of 139.98 plus tax and shipping. Now you also get 3 months of pro for free. This also has come with every month at minimum 1 AAA Game for free Now we saw 2 in December 2 in January And got 2 in February.

Each one of these games "retailed" (past tense is key on that last word) at 59.99 Now these free games aren't 59.99 anymore and have mostly been on sale since release however let's keep in mind we have got DLC and in some cases Deluxe Editions for the games for example Destiny 2 and Tomb Raider. This brings out game total to 5 AAA games +Farm Sim, Thumper and Gylt for....well free. Because the Pro was included for being a Founder/Premier.

Now that we have that out of the way which one is bought the PS4 or Xbox at "launch" ( keyword there) and received more than one game as well as had 4free games within the first 2 months. Now I haven't forgotten that all of these games are not brand new (GYLT excluded) but when we bought last gen consoles they were not backwards capable so basically we played our game we got at launch and then had to wait for the new ones. PS Plus didn't come with free games at launch neither did Xbox Live. So that means we spent Ps4-399.99 plus tax for a console controller and a game. Xbox one-499.99 for the same content. Switch-299.99 for mostly the same content.

Bearing all this in mind I think the anger from the community is mostly out of excitement. We're all excited that the gaming future let's us stream games on multiple devices. Therefore a lot of the raging is coming from lack of patience. I get it I am extremely inpatient, I also want the features and the games now. However, Google said before Stadia released when any one of us had the time to cancel what features were not included at launch.

(...)

A lot of the community is upset at 3 things:

1- Games 2-Features 3-Communication

1:Games are coming. Google stated before Stadia release that it would take time to build a library because they have to work with developers Google also acknowledged they are tracking 120 of them for the first year.

2: Google has released what features are planned for end of Q1/2020 mainly 4k and Android compatibility here

3. Communication makes or breaks a company that doesn't mean companies haven't failed on communication and bounced back once they learn the market and the playerbase for ex: COD BO4 vs. COD MW Google is going to learn and find out what the sweet spot is.

With all this said and put into perspective how bad of a job is Google doing? I think they are doing fantastic it's not perfect, but nothing ever realised in the gaming world has ever been perfect on launch. We haven't hit 90 days yet so let's look forward and set a better tone for ourselves. A realistic outlook on Stadia's performance isn't bad guys. It's not the whole thing yet but it will be.
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/ev97sk/stadia_community_culture_a_refresher_and_looking/

I'll sign it like this! Exactly(!) like this.


Last edited by KuJo on 2 February 2020 at 8:44 pm UTC
elmapul Feb 4, 2020
People losing patience with what is basically and early access product. The service hasn't even rolled out to everyone yet and people are whining. This is why gamers get the reputation they do.

I would be willing to bet cash that there will be new games added to coincide with the actual release of the service for anyone to sign up.

Really? the only reason we are accepting this shit is because we are comparing to what we have before: almost no triple A game at launch.

other people that used to have then instead of being treated as second class citizens wont swallow any shit that google throws at then just because its running linux or it can run on linux.

think about that:

they could have waited for the end of the beta test, but they didnt knew they would be beta testers.
they were the most loyal google fans and are being treated like shit.
google is famous for droping projects if they dont manage to be an sucess (and sucess in their metrics is having hundreds of millions of users, anything less than that and it simply dont worth to keep the project arround)
so people paid for an project, that they could just wait a bit more to get it for free (they would still have to buy the games, but not to sign unless they want to play in 4k)
they paid enough money to buy some extra games for other platforms, buy an new controller or join a little more to buy an console, and intead of being treated like vip, they are treated like shit.

google dont show any sign that he will not drop the project, everyone is losing their hopes, and the ones who want to believe, dont have any reason to think it will change, due to the lack of comunication from google and seen everyone arround give up on it.

most of google promisses were broken.

first: many people got an poor experience, the resolution dont matter when you are playing the game at minimum settings, with tons of input delay and in an unstable experience.

second: many of the promissed features were not there day 0, and google didnt give and preview on when they gonna be avaliable.

thirdy: the lack of games (2 months without any new one, they promissed many but didnt said if they would be indie or what, lack of supported devices (first they promissed any android device, then changed it to pixel only, promissed any pc running chrome changed that to chrome can only run on fullhd, promissed chromecast but it got too hot and it was only the chromecast bundled with this pack at launch, and without those devices they will not get the mainstream adoption that they need to create an sustainable experience for both developers and gamers)

not to mention you need and good unlimited connection to play it, not everyone has that, so its unlikely that the connection speed demand change in the near future and without that, it will not get the mainstream adoption that it needs to be sustainable.

playstation 4 sold one million of copies day in the first day of launch, that is what an sucess is like, selling that faster no developer would ignore that platform, and as an result more gamers could buy it knowing they would be able to play any triple A game that they want this gen.

compare that to stadia that already offer an worse experience than ps4 base (not to mention the pro), dont have the portability that an switch has (i mean, good luck with your mobile connection and data plan and only if you have a pixel)

and even if we accept things like that, google would have no reason to improve, so the things would be left the way they are.
google is not an small company that has to launch an beta before they make money to make the final product.
and linux not having many games in the past is not an excuse, bsd has 0 games yet ps4 has all, the first playstation came from 0 to hundreds of games at launch, and gamers purchased it so fast that the ones who did had the best support from developers (they had a lot of options to play)
they came out of nothing to everything quite quick, there is no room for small companies in this market anymore, if google dont act like the big companie they are, if they then selves dont believe in the product, why should we? or the other people that know nothing about linux, nor care?
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