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.
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Will they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 6:32 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 6:32 pm UTC
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Mohandevir Mar 4, 2020
Will 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
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So with you having to buy games on Stadia and only the ability to play them there, what is Google's policy if they decide to shut down Stadia?
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
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
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eridanired123 Mar 4, 2020
Will 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
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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.
Except Geforce Now is still using Windows as was pointed out many times. So still a problematic option for Linux users.
2 Likes, Who?
Will 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.
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).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
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Its 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
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In 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.Its 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.
2 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Mar 4, 2020
Will 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.
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).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.
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In 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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I didn't say it was better, just that it's a different situation. A store/company doing their own games on their own store/console/whatever has been around since forever. Same with Steam, you won't be buying and playing Portal/Half-Life on GOG or Epic now will you and no one complains about that (I'm sure someone does but you get my point).In 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.
2 Likes, Who?
Exclusivity is all about excluding users.
Personally, I would say that exclusivity is about buying users (in case of paid exclusivity). That's why Epics approach and the willing publishers is so ethically questionable (or any other case of paid exlusivity). You pay for exclusivity to get those potential buyers for yourself. But if you developed the game, then who are you to say to anyone how and where they want to sell it. We might discuss and speculate if it's wise decision in a business sense to limit your potential consumer base, but ethically it is up to the developer/publisher how and where to sell it.
Last edited by Solitary on 4 March 2020 at 7:56 pm UTC
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Kimyrielle Mar 4, 2020
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.
Agreed. I also can't imagine any situation where exclusivity would be good for anyone, except the ones using it as a weapon.
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Same with Steam, you won't be buying and playing Portal/Half-Life on GOG or Epic now will you and no one complains about that (I'm sure someone does but you get my point).
People fall for this, but I wouldn't say they see it as good thing. In fact, a lot of people complained about Epic pushing exclusivity (I suppose since they are the new example).
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 7:58 pm UTC
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We might discuss and speculate if it's wise decision in a business sense to limit your potential consumer base, but ethically it is up to the developer/publisher how and where to sell it.
For artists, limiting audience is the antithesis of their normal goal - their art reaching more people. Exclusivity is about limiting the audience, to force more people to use a particular seller.
From normal creator perspective, exclusivity means making less money, since they profit from wider reach. When sellers (stores) buy and control creators, then this stuff starts kicking in. Like in the above example.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 8:05 pm UTC
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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.
Except Geforce Now is still using Windows as was pointed out many times. So still a problematic option for Linux users.
It's not so cut and dry. GeForce Now servers appear to be using a Xen hypervisor on a Linux server host OS and running Windows Server 2016 as a VM guest. You never interact with the Windows desktop itself and Linux is still involved behind the scenes and the Windows version isn't counted as Windows 10 on Steam survey but as Windows 2016, so it won't add to the Windows 10 market share.
I agree with Liam that no Linux client app sucks but the Android VM method works fine and plus has the added benefit of enabling you to use and play Android apps and games from the Play Store on Linux. It's nice to be able to use the Instagram app on Linux because the web version is very limited and there are several mobile games I like to play on PC. Later on Nvidia said they will release a WebRTC version for Chromebooks that should also support Linux browsers.
Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 4 March 2020 at 8:06 pm UTC
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It's not so cut and dry. GeForce Now servers appear to be using a Xen hypervisor on a Linux server host OS and running Windows Server 2016 as a VM guest. Linux is still involved behind the scenes and the Windows version isn't counted as Windows 10 on Steam survey but as Windows 2016, so it won't add to the Windows 10 market share.
Xen and Linux host don't matter, since it still runs Windows for the game itself.
I view Geforce Now used by Linux gamers simply as dual booting extended to the streaming form. I don't think dual booting Windows is a good thing, same with Geforce Now.
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Will they release their games for normal desktop Linux too, or they'll remain Stadia exclusive? In general, exclusivity is a bad thing.
But such release is all up to Stadia? I mean, Stadia stands for the infrastructure required to run the game on the cloud. This means that Stadia is working like a platform by itself in the same way as PS4, XBOX, Switch or Windows does. So, I think that this requirement you mention is more on the publishers decision that something that Stadia can/must deal with.
Still, it would be nice to get the game "as is" on Stadia server in order to take a look on what are the tech requirements for them... which probably will also make them useless for any desktop distro.
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But such release is all up to Stadia? I mean, Stadia stands for the infrastructure required to run the game on the cloud. This means that Stadia is working like a platform by itself in the same way as PS4, XBOX, Switch or Windows does. So, I think that this requirement you mention is more on the publishers decision that something that Stadia can/must deal with.
My question was about games developed by studios that Google now owns, so that decision is up to Stadia after all (or Google if you prefer).
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 March 2020 at 8:23 pm UTC
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My question was about games developed by studios that Google now owns, so that decision is up to Stadia after all (or Google if you prefer).
Well, in that case I think that the answer is pretty obvious. Still, even Microsoft end up publishing his main xbox exclusive game on Steam so everything is possible (but not probable in the short end).
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