Google Stadia aka the Game Console without a Console
Roger Stringer / December 6, 2019
3 min read
I've been trying out Google's Stadia console since it came out.
When it arrived, it was basically a Google Chromecast Ultra and a white controller, pretty straight forward.
Set up is simple, you sync the Chromecast to the controller and play games.
The beauty behind Stadia is similar to Nvidia's GeForce Now service where games are streamed from servers, so there's no actual downloading of games to your device and you can switch between playing on your TV, your mobile phone via the Stadia app or any computer with the Chrome browser.
Just pick up from where you left off and keep playing.
Some of the reviews have been hit or miss, this is because of Internet speed where people are tested it, my home Internet is 600MB download and game play is smooth, even smoother than game play on the Shield was via GeForce Now.
Do you need the Stadia controller to play Stadia on mobile?
On a phone, you can use any controller to play games, but there is an advantage to using the Stadia controller over others.
Since Stadia games are streamed from Google's data centers, you'll have the milliseconds it takes for signals to go back and forth.
The Stadia controller negates this by connecting to your wifi connection and then straight to the data centers, so it eliminates the middle man.
Playing games had no lag when I was testing, so that's a big advantage.
So who is the Stadia meant for?
If you already have an Xbox One or PS4 then the Stadia probably isn't for you, but if you want a smaller investment, smaller footprint and even just something to take up less space over all then Stadia is for you. That being said, I do have both an Xbox One and a PS4 and still enjoy the Stadia, the idea of being able to play from anywhere without lugging around too much extra gear is just appealing.
So yes, it's great if you want a high end console without a high end console, but it's also great if you already have those consoles and just want a way to play console games without the console. (That makes sense right??)
The others will follow before long, Microsoft is already beta testing a similar cloud gaming service called XCloud that will let you play some of your existing Xbox games via streaming to mobile devices, and eventually Sony will join in as well, not sure about Nintendo though.
Meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy Destiny 2 and the other games on my Stadia while they catch up.