Stadia, Google's streaming project

          The Stream Stadia project

     STADIA, also known as Project Stream, is an on-demand video game platform designed by Google, allowing AAA video games to be played on any device, such as a computer or Chromecast.

          Google's new cloud gaming service has just been made official and fully detailed, it's a bit like the "Netflix of video games".

          Cloud Gaming 

       Imagine that you have a huge computer capable of running absolutely any game, even the newest ones in the best quality, except that this computer isn't at home, it's on Google servers, and you can access it whenever you want, and from any device or from your computer already, from your smartphone, from your tablet, in fact, even from a browser, and that's the magic of Cloud gaming.

       These servers, allow access to games that are in 4K in HDR at 60 fps, and even with a 5.1 surround sound, the problem is that you need a good connection to succeed in having such a quality.

     Imagine that to play a 4K HDR game at 60fps, you need at least 30 megabits per second, then you can still play with a lower quality, for example from 20 megabits per second you have Full HD and even with 10 megabits per second you have 720p, the problem is that the connection is not everything, you also need a line that has excellent stability.

          List of Google Stadia games at launch

       Games on Stadia there are, about thirty at launch, games like Baldur's Gate III, Mortal kombat 11, Ghost recon breakpoint, Gylt, Get Packed, The Division 2, Destiny 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Final Fantasy 15 of the Darksiders Tomb Raider... But beware, it's not for free.

     Because unlike Netflix, where you have access to absolutely the whole catalog from the moment you subscribe, it's not at all the case, you have to pay your games one by one to be able to play them, it's a little bit like if you buy your games on Steam or on Epic store, etc..   

     Access to the service itself is free, but it's only free in Full HD or lower quality if you want 4k, you'll have to switch to a paid subscription, the Stadia Pro with €9.99 per month, but that brings you a few advantages including free games and discounts on the purchase of your games, a bit like the equivalent of the Playstation+ at Sony or the Xbox live at Microsoft.

     Cloud Gaming services already exist, Sony has launched Playstation Now, Nvidia has launched Gforce Now, and to another extent, it can be compared to Shadow, which offers not access to games, but access to a complete computer in the Cloud.

     All its services have one thing in common, it's that they try to remove physical devices we have at home, whether it's consoles or really a Gamer computer, is it going to succeed in replacing consoles or our computers, in the short term no, but in the long term, it's very possible.

          When can we play it?

       Simply in November 2019, in any case, you pre-order the pack on the google store at 129 euros, which gives you an ultra Chromecast to Stream your games in 4K on your TV, a controller a little special, but we still wait to have it in hand to judge, three months subscription to the pro offered to play in 4k, and lots of other little tricks like the possibility to reserve your name on the service, however, if you want to play for free, beware you'll have to wait until 2020.