Stadia was off to a rough start, it's still quite rough now but an interesting look at a possible future of convenience playing games wherever you want. Seems Google are just getting started.
Back in October Google announced Stadia Games and Entertainment, their own first-party studio dedicated to making games for their streaming service. They later acquired Typhoon Studios to join that new studio and now they've announced the formation of another studio focusing on Stadia exclusives.
In a fresh blog post today, Jade Raymond the VP and Head of Stadia Games and Entertainment, announced the second Stadia Games and Entertainment studio in Playa Vista, California. This additional team will be led by Shannon Studstill, who previously led Sony's Santa Monica Studio (God of War).
The new Playa Vista studio will focus on delivering exclusive games, using new gameplay mechanics, creative ways to play together and unique interaction models that we’re just starting to explore. While we’re not ready to share specific game plans yet, rest assured we are listening to what gamers want and adding our own Stadia twists to create new IP and experiences.
They're also hiring a lot more people to work on Stadia games.
In other Stadia news, on the official Stadia website you should now be able to actually access screenshots taken (useful for when you've played it somewhere else) found directly here. Weirdly I have to access it through the URL directly, there's no option for me to click into it so it looks like they're not taking into account people who didn't keep their Pro sub and didn't buy a game—woops.
Pictured: Stadia captures in the web browser.
Yesterday, the Serious Sam Collection launched to combine the whole FPS series together from Croteam. It's also now confirmed that The Division 2 is launching on March 17 for Stadia, with cross-play against the Windows version—which is how all Stadia games should be.
Stadia definitely needs some real killer games to push people towards it, as the outlook hasn't been too great despite it working really well in our own testing. Being able to load up Chromium/Chrome on Linux, and play a AAA game within seconds is technically very impressive.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 6:32 pm UTC
Mohandevir Mar 4, 2020
Quoting: ShmerlWill they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.
Who knows... Maybe on ChromeOS? #sarcasm
Do you become shit out of luck or will Google refund you of the games you can no longer play?
When are they just gonna start offering basic subscription tiers? Not everyone wants to spend $129 to get started with Stadia. I don't want a Chromecast Pro nor a Stadia Controller (I already have several controllers).
While it's a nice, fuzzy thought that Stadia is using Debian and Vulkan in the cloud, lets get real, that alone isn't a good value proposition for concerned consumers who know of Google's track record:
https://killedbygoogle.com/
Personally, I prefer GeForce Now at $5 per month and while it isn't as simple to get running (requires an Android x86 9.0 K49 VM and USB mouse pass-through), it works fine on Linux once that's done. Plus GFN has most of the Battle Royale games that Linux gamers want to play but can't normally due to Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye.
Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 4 March 2020 at 7:09 pm UTC
eridanired123 Mar 4, 2020
Quoting: ShmerlWill they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.
At first, maybe; but if they achieve an hegemonic position in the industry, most likely they will not and only release exclusives for their platform.
Last edited by eridanired123 on 4 March 2020 at 7:08 pm UTC
Quoting: Xaero_VincentPersonally, I prefer GeForce Now at $5 per month and while it isn't as simple to get running (requires an Android x86 9.0 K49 VM and USB mouse pass-through), it works fine on Linux once that's done. Plus GFN has most of the Battle Royale games that Linux gamers want to play but can't normally due to Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye.
Except Geforce Now is still using Windows as was pointed out many times. So still a problematic option for Linux users.
Quoting: ShmerlWill they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.Its a streaming service, no desktop versions.
Quoting: Xaero_VincentWhen are they just gonna start offering basic subscription tiers? Not everyone wants to spend $129 to get started with Stadia. I don't want a Chromecast Pro nor a Stadia Controller (I already have several controllers).Sometime in the next few months. There were some scraping updates to the Android app for it, which found mentions of Stadia Pro trials too.
Personally won't touch GeForce Now. To me, Linux means something big, it using Windows servers and no Linux support is a big turn off.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 March 2020 at 7:19 pm UTC
Quoting: Liam DaweIts a streaming service, no desktop versions.
Normal creators (developers) should not limit their games to one form factor / store, etc. Exclusivity is a bad thing by design. Clearly though, when such platform owners buy studios, they don't want them to work like normal developers.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 7:20 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlIn normal situations exclusivity can be bad for consumers, yes. It's quite different when it's the store making the games themselves, like Stadia will be doing.Quoting: Liam DaweIts a streaming service, no desktop versions.
Normal creators (developers) should not limit their games to one form factor / store, etc. Exclusivity is a bad thing by design. Clearly though, when such platform owners buy studios, they don't want them to work like normal developers.
Mohandevir Mar 4, 2020
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: ShmerlWill they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.Its a streaming service, no desktop versions.
Quoting: Xaero_VincentWhen are they just gonna start offering basic subscription tiers? Not everyone wants to spend $129 to get started with Stadia. I don't want a Chromecast Pro nor a Stadia Controller (I already have several controllers).Sometime in the next few months. There were some scraping updates to the Android app for it, which found mentions of Stadia Pro trials too.
Personally won't touch GeForce Now. To me, Linux means something big, it using Windows servers and no Linux support is a big turn off.
I have an Nvidia Shield and stopped using GFN for this reason. At least, it's probably the best Steam Link app streaming box you may find around. That's how I use it, lately.
Quoting: Liam DaweIn normal situations exclusivity can be bad for consumers, yes. It's quite different when it's the store making the games themselves, like Stadia will be doing.
I don't see how it makes it any better. Users who don't want to use that store (or can't for whatever reason), won't be able to play those games. Exclusivity is all about excluding users. So I never see it as good.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 7:23 pm UTC
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