Tech giant Google's highly anticipated entry into the cloud gaming market is off to a rocky start as the Stadia platform has been widely panned by tech reviewers.
The games industry has grown in the past few years to become bigger than the film and music industries combined, but it's not always a cheap hobby to get into. Modern home game consoles are considered purchases at hundreds of pounds, and a high-end gaming PC capable of 4K resolutions and high framerates can cost thousands. If you want to get the most out of your 4K display, it's going to cost you.
New cloud gaming technologies have the potential to remove that barrier of entry by moving the expensive equipment from your home to the cloud. The game runs on specialised hardware in a data centre and video can then be streamed from there to practically any device, while your controller inputs are transmitted to the data centre. As long as you have the stable internet connection needed to stream, this lets you access high-spec gaming equipment from a low-spec laptop or even a mobile device.
Google's highly anticipated cloud gaming platform Stadia officially launched this week, and the reviews so far have not been kind. The platform promised crisp 4k resolutions at 60 frames per second, but most games are failing to hit the promised performance benchmarks. Video quality has taken a noticeable hit due to stream compression, and even users on fast and stable internet connections are reporting frequent stuttering and lag.
The actual launch itself has been something of a nightmare for many users too, with many of the pre-orders of the Founder's Edition not shipping by launch day. Even users who had received their packages were also frequently left waiting for days for an activation code to use the service.
So far the service is only available to those who puchased the £120 Founder's Edition, which comes with a Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra to run the service on your TV. Google has also come under fire for its business model, with just a handful of games available on the service and all games having to be purchased separately at full or close to full retail price.
Competing cloud gaming platforms aren't having as many technical issues currently, and they run on more familiar business models. Cloud gaming services Shadow and GeForce Now both provide value for money by allowing users to install games they already own, for example, while Microsoft's Project xCloud beta gives access to a library of games on XBox Game Pass via a Netflix-like subscription.
