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Stadia is still in about two months, but Google does not hesitate to play the appetite for service. At Gamescom earlier this week, the company announced a host of new games for the platform, including CD Project Red's Cyberpunk 2077, Stadia exclusive Orcs must die 3, and much more. We had the chance to actively participate in the streaming service during the event. Despite some flaws, it is becoming a viable alternative to high-end PCs and game consoles for a vast majority of casual gamers – though Stadia can maintain perfect latency on wireless connections.
Due to the busy nature of any living room, Google was forced to use ethernet for the demonstration. Instead of connecting the Stadia controller to a router via Wi-Fi, the joystick has been wired to a corresponding Pixelbook or Pixel 3 XL, connected to Stadia servers. Directly connecting the controller to the router should potentially further reduce latency, because commands do not have to go through another node before reaching Google's servers. This is Google's preferred configuration for home use. It is therefore disappointing not to be able to test it today.
The Stadia controller, unlike the PlayStation and Xbox solutions, looks a lot like Google-y, but does not have a better word. Just like Pixel phones, its double sticks are accompanied by orange and yellow accent colors, and white plastic goes with Pixel 3a and Home. You might criticize it for its rather playful appearance, but it's a game controller after all.
The layout of the buttons is similar to that of the contest. The double clickable sticks are connected by two pairs of shoulder buttons, a directional pad and four action buttons. In the middle, you get another set of options to call Google Assistant, save a screen (both do not work yet), open the Stadia menu or suspend the game. Holding the controller in my hands does not seem as solid as the counterpart of the PS4 and, even if the buttons have a distinct click, they are still soft before you fully press. Overall, the controller is pretty decent and if Google would have it a bit more competitive, it would really be worth it – especially for a first generation product.
In the Gamescom work area, Stadia was available on a Pixel 3 XL and a Pixelbook, both in conjunction with the controller. The Pixelbook was connected to an external 1080p screen and the Pixel phone did not offer the maximum 4K resolution of Stadia either.
Google's choice of demo games shows its confidence in Stadia's low latency. I could test Eternal Doom and Mortal Kombat 11, two examples of genres that require quick reactions where milliseconds can make or break your winning streak. When I played, I noticed no discernible lag (note that I am at most an occasional player). I found a blur around the letters, artifacts increasing or decreasing depending on the intensity of the rendered scene.
It's understandable – even though Stadia requires a 20 Mbps connection to switch to 1080p, live images still need to be heavily compressed. As a rule, it was not a nuisance, but you could still notice it.. I've also had two instances of still images that have remained static for a second, but I would be very careful to call Google for the moment. There was a multitude of streaming devices from Stadia to the same place, which is probably the case. will not come into use in the real world.
Google employees said that the servers used during the demonstrations are located in Frankfurt, about 100 km from Gamescom. They did not want to tell me how fast their connection to the living room was, however – the only thing they would say was that it was not extraordinarily fast and that one could reasonably expect a similar connection to the House.
Despite all this, I'm still worried that Wi-Fi will become Stadia's Achilles' heel. Until now, we have only used Stadia in an environment fully controlled by Google, whether it is wired or at least protected from other networks. The reality is that Wi-Fi networks interfere with each other. Stadia may lose more images once you get home with its potentially less than ideal network infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Gamescom demo is at least promising and fascinates me for the November launch.
I spoke to some of the other professional visitors who were also impressed by the capabilities of the game streaming service. They all agreed that there was no visible gap, although they also admitted that they were not the heaviest players and that they were not the most serious players. none of them had played. Eternal Doom or Deadly fight before.
If you are a competitive or even very advanced player, Stadia is probably not for you. But it's the beauty of open markets. There is a good service for everyone and people who are heavily involved in games can still invest a lot in the equipment. For others, buying a game that does not require additional hardware may be the best solution, even if it means they will see artifacts, delays, and frozen images.
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