Stadia – Cloud Gaming from Google

Google Stadia is a streaming platform for video games that works in the same way as streaming services for movies and series such as Netflix or Amazon Prime – downloads and sub­se­quent in­stal­la­tions of the games are not necessary. What you can expect from Stadia and what you need to know about gaming via broadband in general can be found in the following sections.

Since video games are in­ter­ac­tive media, unlike the movies and series on Netflix and the like, the exchange of larger data packets runs both ways on services like Stadia: The inputs made to the con­troller or mouse and keyboard for game control are sent back to the servers and syn­chro­nized so that you can enjoy a smooth gaming ex­pe­ri­ence.

You can find more in­for­ma­tion on how Stadia and similar streaming platforms work in our article “How does cloud gaming work”.

The big advantage of cloud computing via Stadia is that the hardware of your end devices doesn’t have to meet the usage re­quire­ments of the games in question. Since the titles are run on the platform’s own servers and only streamed to your network, the only mandatory re­quire­ment is a stable and powerful Internet con­nec­tion. This should have at least a bandwidth of 10 MBit/s when down­load­ing for HD gaming. For 4K gaming, Google rec­om­mends at least 35 MBit/s download speed. The upload re­quire­ments are 1 MBit/s.

Otherwise, Google Stadia service makes moderate demands on your own hardware. As long as you do not use “ancient” devices, you should be able to use Stadia without any problems. In addition to desktop PCs and laptops (with mouse and keyboard), the available devices include notebooks, tablets, and smart­phones from Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Asus, Razer, and LG. Since the end of 2020, you can also use smart­phones and tablets from Apple for the service.

Popular game con­trollers are also fully com­pat­i­ble. However, for use on TV, the Chrome­cast Ultra streaming player is required, which in turn requires the in-house Stadia con­troller. Both devices have to be purchased sep­a­rate­ly.

Stadia gives you the op­por­tu­ni­ty to play current games even if you don’t have the ap­pro­pri­ate hardware. No updates are necessary on the hardware side nor on the software side: The servers in the operator’s data centers run the games and updates are applied au­to­mat­i­cal­ly. If possible, games can even be played or continued on tablets or smart­phones.

With Google Stadia, not only the games are stored in the cloud, but also the as­so­ci­at­ed saves, if desired. This provides maximum flex­i­bil­i­ty because games can be played almost anywhere. Stadia offers a con­stant­ly growing number of well-known games. If titles are not included in the library, they can be purchased and also played via the cloud. The Pro sub­scrip­tion can also be tested initially and can be canceled at any time.

With a cor­re­spond­ing­ly high-quality Internet con­nec­tion, the games are displayed in the best possible quality via Google Stadia. If the bandwidth is too low or there are sit­u­a­tion­al fluc­tu­a­tions, the picture and sound are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly scaled down. A smooth gaming ex­pe­ri­ence has top priority. The latency, i.e. the time in mil­lisec­onds required to exchange data packets, is rel­a­tive­ly low in most cases.

The biggest dis­ad­van­tage of the service is the most obvious one: In areas with weak in­fra­struc­ture for high-capacity broadband Internet, a cloud gaming service like Google Stadia is not rec­om­mend­ed. Higher latency times and poor picture and sound quality not only reduce the gaming fun, but ul­ti­mate­ly hinder it com­plete­ly. Speaking of latency, it is good to very good in most cases, but those who mainly play com­pet­i­tive mul­ti­play­er shooters might notice every mil­lisec­ond delayed by the stream.

If the data through­put of the Internet con­nec­tion or your home network fluc­tu­ates, this will also affect the games’ pre­sen­ta­tion via Google Stadia. The optical block­buster will turn into a down­scaled game with blurred textures or coarse pixels in a matter of seconds.

While the number of titles available in the Pro sub­scrip­tion library is growing steadily, compared to the rest of the video games available on the market, the offer is rel­a­tive­ly small. Operators are gradually adding larger game series to their offerings, though these have already earned their name in the past. Current block­busters or even exclusive titles are still largely pipe dreams.

Even if there are offers and sales for titles at Google Stadia from time to time, the games (for the basic sub­scrip­tion or those that are not included in the library) are usually sold at full price, which can be more expensive than on other platforms. Also, you cannot transfer titles that you have already purchased on Steam or Origin, for example, to Stadia. When gaming on the TV, there is also the fact that you have to invest in Chrome­cast Ultra and are then also forced to invest in the official Stadia con­troller.

Another dis­ad­van­tage lies in the nature of cloud gaming or streaming services. If the mem­ber­ship ends, you no longer have access to the games. Also, because of the streaming in­fra­struc­ture and the fact that the games are not run on your own computer or device, it is not possible to run your own servers for mul­ti­play­er games. So if you want to set up your own Minecraft server for yourself and friends, for example, you won’t get far with Google Stadia.