More new games, free games to try out on Stadia Pro from now until the end of the weekend and some super secret projects currently in the works for Stadia.
Let's get the facts out of the way first shall we? Games and more of them. Available now are HITMAN 3 with the brand new Stadia State Share feature, and also Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Complete Edition. Interestingly, if you have Stadia Pro you can also still claim HITMAN and HITMAN 2 which have both been given this State Share feature on Stadia now too.
Also announced is the wonderful quirky Pikuniku, which will released for Stadia on February 2.
This weekend until January 25, 5PM UTC if you're a subscriber of Stadia Pro you can try out WWE 2K Battlegrounds and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for as long as you like. Much like the Free Weekends we see up on Steam. Both of them are also on a big discount too, with Breakpoint having a huge cut from £59.99 down to £7.79.
If you own an LG TV, they're also getting dedicated built-in Stadia in the second half of 2021 which is on top of Stadia being supported on Google TV this year too.
Curiously 9to5Google take apart the APK file for the Android Stadia app, and they end up finding some pretty interesting upcoming features. The latest teardown shows up something called "Project Hailstorm":
A Hailstorm is coming soon.
Introducing Project Hailstorm from Stadia
What the heck do you think that's going to be? A new exclusive Stadia game? A big new feature? Would love to read your thoughts in the comments.
You can play Stadia using a Chromium / Chrome browser on Linux.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Still not getting their value proposition against using your own games in services like shadow.tech
Last edited by spayder26 on 21 January 2021 at 5:27 pm UTC
Quoting: spayder26Stadia, where you pay full retail price to rent games until they shut down, and where an expensive subscription gives you trials and 30 cheap games (which between old, bad, and indie ones, are worth of 20 bucks as a whole on sale).you pay full retail price -> there are sales, too. You can pay full retail prices on Steam, too!
Still not getting their value proposition against using your own games in services like shadow.tech
until they shut down -> How many PAID services Google did really shut down in the past (PAID is important here)? Unlikely - but what happens if Valve shut down Steam? This is a problem for all DRM- or "plattform-protected" games. So, what is an "own game"? If it isn't open source, you really don't "own" it at all. Even GOG games can be a problem if the developer stops supporting them (missing libraries, no support for modern OS, and so on).
an expensive subscription -> What are you expecting? A free "AAA" title each month? The subscription gives you 4K, better sound and more sale options (so it's not just for the free games).
The value? For me:
- convenience (no downloads, no patches, games start instantly)
- play on TV, any gaming monitor or even on the tablet
- cheating (nearly) impossible
- no expensive gaming hardware required, little (and not so costly) risk of hardware-failures
- it just works, instantly and without any problems
I can understand this isn't a model for everyone. But I can't understand the hate - and I don't believe you can't see any benefits!
Last edited by nepo on 22 January 2021 at 11:06 am UTC
Mohandevir Jan 22, 2021
Personally, when it will become officially available on Android TV boxes (Project Hailstorm?), it's probably going to become what will take the relay of my PS4 or any other console. The experience is good enough, in my case, with the sideloaded app (which means not fully featured yet), on my Nvidia Shield.
I even deactivated GeForce Now because of the weird desktop integration and lack of customization; some default parameters are wrong (ex: language support) and there is no way to change them. The loading times are not that great either. Add to this that not all Steam games are available on GeForce Now... I much prefer the Steam Link app, at this point.
All that Stadia is still lacking is the gaming catalog that is still limited, but it gets better by the day (just like any other new console launch).
I already have 3 HDTV with Android TV boxes (ipTV)... One gaming service to rule them all.
Edit: Oh yeah! Forgot about the family share that is the best proposition out there... My daughter completed a Jedi: Fallen Order run (on her phone, on top of that
) while I was playing Rage 2, thanks to Stadia family share that didn't lock the whole library when I logged in.Last edited by Mohandevir on 22 January 2021 at 8:38 pm UTC
Quoting: spayder26Stadia, where you pay full retail price to rent games until they shut down, and where an expensive subscription gives you trials and 30 cheap games (which between old, bad, and indie ones, are worth of 20 bucks as a whole on sale).
Still not getting their value proposition against using your own games in services like shadow.tech
I get to play AAA titles which I probably would only have played through once or twice like AC Valhalla or Cyberpunk, on Linux, on a machine which could not remotely hope to run them properly even on Windows.
And I can play from the couch on the TV if I want to.
And shadow.tech has crazy waiting times at the moment. 6 month until you get access... I'll forget the games existed till then.
Quoting: nepountil they shut down -> How many PAID services Google did really shut down in the past (PAID is important here)? Unlikely - but what happens if Valve shut down Steam? This is a problem for all DRM- or "plattform-protected" games. So, what is an "own game"? If it isn't open source, you really don't "own" it at all. Even GOG games can be a problem if the developer stops supporting them (missing libraries, no support for modern OS, and so on).
I'll say to that, before Steam with its userbase shuts down it's bought and the service will be maintained in a way or another.
For Stadia, google shut down many paid services in the past due to limited use.
I do not see that with Stadia, the big bet investment is done, maintaining it will not cost them a lot. Gaming is a long term bet, and if they want to get into that market the product will need to be kept up for at least 5-7 years to see if it can succeed. If it fails it will have cost google, which they can afford, if they succeed they got a long term money machine.
With android almost everywhere and phones replacing a computer soon with a dock... it is a good bet and the tech is good enough to succeed.
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