Stadia will lack several features at launch, including 4K streaming on PC

[midian182]

In brief: Google Stadia arrives next Tuesday (November 19), but those expecting it to launch with a full suite of features are set to be disappointed.

In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), Stadia director of product Andrey Doronichev and product manager Beri Lee revealed that several features of the game streaming service wouldn’t be available on launch day, with many of them rolling out over the coming weeks and months instead.

One thing missing is Stream Connect, which is the service’s version of local co-op, though that will arrive by the end of the year. And Family Sharing, which Doronichev called a "high priority feature," won’t arrive until early next year, meaning those who want to play a game with their partner or child will have to buy a second copy.

The Buddy Pass, a perk for Founders Editions of Stadia that lets people gift a three-month Stadia subscription to a friend, will ship two weeks after buyers receive their bundles.

Other features that users will have to wait for include the ability for streamers to play Stadia games with viewers (Crowd Play), achievements, sharing saved data between accounts, and support for Chromecast Ultras.

"On Day 1 you should use the Chromecast Ultra that came in your bundle. It has the latest firmware," Doronichev said. "We will be updating the existing CC Ultra’s over the air soon after launch. So you’ll be able to use your Stadia Controller to play on many TVs in your home."

For those intending on streaming Stadia to their PCs, don’t expect 4K, HDR or 5.1 Surround Sound until next year. "On 11/19 we’ll be only streaming 4K / HDR / 5.1 to Chromecast Ultra. We know from the feedback the Founders gave us that the 4K TV must be our top priority for launch. On day 1, PC Chrome gameplay won't support 4K, HDR, or 5.1 Surround Sound," Doronichev added. "But in the spirit of gradual rollout, we’ll be adding support for 4K/HDR/5.1 on PCs in 2020."

While Google never promised all of Stadia’s features would be present on day one, the news will likely disappoint plenty of people. It comes after the company revealed the mere 12 launch-day games, which will expand to 14 before the end of the year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82769-stadia-lack-several-features-launch-including-4k-streaming.html

 

[thelatestmodel]

I cannot stress enough how dead on arrival this product is. Absolute disaster in waiting.

I have seen -no- good press on it at all, it sounds like exceptionally bad value for money and I doubt it will even work given the state of broadband infrastructure. Much better to support cool companies that actually care like GOG.

 

[Burty117]

I've been playing the latest CoD. I live in the UK and therefore, BT controls the Internet Infrastructure here, my Ping tends to be quite high anyway and then I get massive spikes every few minutes if the weather outside is slightly bad.

Thanks to the netcode in CoD, sometimes this can be ironed out and it doesn't affect me, sometimes it's really bad and everything freezes for a second or so. That's not a lot of data either, purely about latency.

Now this is streaming a high res image with sound, much more data, and latency is even more important since my input won't be registered until it's made it's way back to the server.

I'm sorry Goog|e, had you come knocking on my door and said "Hey, we're going to compete with BT so you don't have to deal with worse than third world Internet Access anymore, but it'll cost twice as much". I'd have jumped at the occasion.

Since Broadband Infrastructure is so tied into how these services perform. Can someone explain to me why the richest company's in the world won't invest in an ISP? Google, Microsoft, Amazon Hell even Apple, surely with the resources and money they have, they could provide decent Internet to a wide audience?

 

[Puiu]

 

[Eldritch]

But don't fear, we will not compromise on price and we are committed to charge you full amount even if most features are missing.

 

[Phylop]

Even if the performance of streaming games was exactly the same as a high end gaming PC with zero latency, this is still a bad product and bad for gamers in general. If game streaming is allowed to become successful it will allow publishers to release lower quality games and not have to worry about losing profit. Since you're just paying for a service instead of individual games, they will be much less interested in making sure each game is high quality and full of content. All this does is dumb down games, and reduce consumer choice.

 

[koblongata]

Bring it to Taiwan first... I have a 1ms ISP ping uncapped flat-rate 100Gbit fiber to home ($35 a month), but sadly mostly I just browse and watch some vids...

I am eager to try Stadia.

 

[Carlos GarPov]

NOT a bright future ahead...

 

[BSim500]

I cannot stress enough how dead on arrival this product is. Absolute disaster in waiting. I have seen -no- good press on it at all, it sounds like exceptionally bad value for money and I doubt it will even work given the state of broadband infrastructure. Much better to support cool companies that actually care like GOG.

Agree 100%. Whilst supposedly educated tech sites are gushing over 4K game streaming with obvious infomercials, here's a reminder (link) of what Google provided 1080p video streaming services look like a few years down line after they've been "mainstreamed", and all the early high-bitrate tech demo's fed to journalists are replaced with gradually but consistently lowered bitrates. Throw away those GPU's guys - this is the 'future' of PC gaming... ?

 

[Ravalo]

Ok this is 100% DOA right now

 

[treetops]

Hmm I bet you can simulate a chromecast ultra on a PC. If not that's pretty pretty lame.

 

[thelatestmodel]

Bring it to Taiwan first... I have a 1ms ISP ping uncapped flat-rate 100Gbit fiber to home ($35 a month), but sadly mostly I just browse and watch some vids...

I am eager to try Stadia.

I hope you enjoy it for the 6 months before Google kill it

 

[Bubbajim]

I just can't quite believe that they're comfortable only having admitted this info on a Reddit AMA. If I had bought/pre-ordered a Stadia setup I'd be absolutely fuming that this staggered launch plan hadn't been made clear from their first announcement. This is a horrendous way to treat customers.