Trailer Impressions: Stadia GDC 2019 Gaming Announcement

GDC this year was met with a new challenger in the gaming market. While it was in beta with Project Stream, Google announced their “console” the Google Stadia. What makes this stand out from the big three is that it’ll be dedicated to cloud gaming.

After the announcement and hands-on time from the press, the reaction was mixed. I have experienced cloud gaming in the past with OnLive. What I liked is that you are not tied down to a console, and as long you have a good internet connection, you can play. I remember playing Saints Row The Third and Batman: Arkham Asylum on my Windows 7 laptop with amazement that the laptop specs were not made for gaming.

I can appreciate Stadia giving you multiple devices to play and the ability to stream games at 4K / 60fps / HDR, which is something most high-end PCs, Xbox One X, and PS4 Pros have a trouble of maintaining. With the Stadia there’s also extra incentive for live streamers to interact with the community. I am also worried that if this does well and people rely on convenience over long term, I fear that cloud gaming will be the norm and the days of physically owning a game will come to an end. I’m sure the new Xbox and PlayStation will still have offline play, but the rumor of a digital Xbox One coming soon shows that it is being considered. But I don’t see that happening soon, considering that the internet structure here (U.S.) still isn’t the best, as there are still people tied down by data caps and slow speeds pending on location.