When Google decided to close the division Games and Entertainment of Stadia it was announced that in the future it would work to offer third parties the streaming capabilities of the Big G cloud gaming service. Many have interpreted this as a sign of surrender by Google, unable to make the most of a product in some sense revolutionary like Stadia, others have instead glimpsed new opportunities for expansion for a technology destined to become the spine of videogame streaming services.
Today, thanks to Warner Bros ed AT&T, you can finally touch - at least in America - the first example of Stadia acting behind the scenes as a service provider. In detail, all AT&T Wireless customers can play one Tech Demo of Batman: Arkham Knight streaming directly from their PC to Chrome or Edge browser.
After logging in with their telephone company data, the customer is brought back to a landing page with FAQ and a nice button with the words "Play now for free" which allows a streaming experience identical to that which Stadia players live on the Google portal.
Digging deeper, while the Stadia entry is never mentioned on the page, the web requests needed to start streaming all connect to Google's servers and mention "Cloudcast“, Which is one of the internal nicknames used for Stadia's technology.
The same representatives of the American telephone company subsequently confirmed the use of Google's infrastructure
Yes, we are using Stadia technology for this demo. Batman: Arkham Knight can be played directly on the web from any computer "
It therefore seems that the path taken by Google is precisely that of "lending" Stadia to anyone who wants to exploit its infrastructure to offer Cloud Gaming services. Could it be a more profitable choice than producing AAA games at home?
Stadia is beautiful, Stadia is revolutionary, but the others are already one step ahead
Time passes quickly and we are rapidly approaching the second anniversary of the launch of Google Stadia. Undoubtedly the service has grown since that November 19, 2019: are supported more than 200 games, many of the promised features have been implemented and, in one way or another, the service is still alive and well. However, with the passage of time, the advantages that Stadia had over the competition are gradually running out, especially because the competitors have beaten Google by presenting updates Hardware important.
Just in the last few weeks, both Microsoft and Nvidia have announced a makeover of the beating hearts behind their cloud gaming services. M has officially completed the rollout of the new one hardware Xbox Series X per xCloud, while N has kicked off work on a massive update of GeForce Now, which will be able to offer faster framerates than stadia and will equalize the 4K resolution, which has now become THE gold standard.
Then, there is Stadia.
The service hasn't changed at all in terms of performance since its launch, which isn't exactly a terrible thing. Stadia still offers 4K streaming with a quality that is still the best in the business, and with the least “dancing” gameplay of all.
Is simple, Google Stadia works! However, the hardware it runs on is starting to show its age and it begs for an update.
An example can be found in Far Cry 6. Ubisoft's latest effort (our review here) on Stadia is more in line with the "Old-Gen" versions than with PS5 and XBSX, so much so that at the level of graphics and framerate is at 4K - for Pro subscription owners - but with a framerate locked at 30fps. Then there are games like Ark, which arrived on Stadia with graphics that are nothing short of shameful compared to other platforms.
By optimizing resources, and improving them mind you, there is a lot that can be done on Stadia. This is demonstrated by FIFA 22 (yes, we also reviewed FIFA here) which, unlike what it does on PC, offers Hypermotion technology - which is the prerogative of Next-Gen consoles - also on the Google platform, with some limitations.
With the announcement of Stadia, Google proposed an idea of cyclical hardware updates touting it as a platform advantage. With new “pieces under the hood” the cloud gaming service was destined to provide, over time, a gameplay 8K e 120fps. I have not heard anything about it until now though.
In an old interview John Justice, former Vice President and Head of Product of Stadia, stated that Google was working for update every component of its infrastructure dedicated to cloud gaming, but that we would never have received news too early. Indeed, we have not received any, but it is clear that we are reaching that point of no return, that point in which Google Stadia is no longer the avant-garde of the technique because all the others have recovered - if not even surpassed - their ancestor.
Stadia's list of priorities certainly sees it in more "privileged" positions constancy of release of the most followed games and videogame series, and I think of FIFA and NBA 2K - we had 22 versions of their respective titles, I expect the next chapters to arrive - as well as the launch on the service of other products absent but released to date on other platforms. Someone said eFootball? Alan Wake Remastered? Kena Bridge of Spirits? Just to mention some of the latest releases of which there is not even the shadow of a news regarding their arrival on Stadia.
Un upgrade under the hood for Stadia it would have a huge impact not only on the possibilities given to developers to be able to exploit a More performing hardware, but it would give the idea that Google still believes in its creation for a long-term project. Or at least it would make us end users believe that Stadia is not an idea that could be unplugged at any moment.
I, in my small way, try to believe it. So much so that while writing this article I received this:
