Peter James Mann
Most are probably familiar with names like Nintendo, Sega, or even Sony, but Google also has a foot in the Video Game Industry with its own unique game-streaming service, Google Stadia. And currently, Google is offering a two-month Stadia Pro free trial for everyone with a Gmail account.
I must admit, I’ve been curious about Stadia since it launched, especially with the ability to stream to almost any screen, but never really found a reason to jump in until now. And, quite frankly, I found less of what I wanted a streaming service for games to be and more of what I dreaded it could be.
God, I wanted to love Google Stadia. And why wouldn’t I? A service that can stream a game on any platform as long as it has a screen and an internet connection? Being able to play Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey or Doom Eternal on my phone? Yes, please, give it to me right now.
But that’s not exactly what Google Stadia is. It’s not exactly a platform like steam, where you download a game to your PC, and you store a digital copy. Nor is it solely, as I found out, a straight up streaming service like Netflix. Sure, there are games you can stream as a Stadia Pro member every month, but it is a revolving list. And from what I could tell, there were not many to choose from.
If you want the game to keep, you to pay full price for the title and a little note on your account says you have it. But if Goggle decides, one day, to remove a game from the server completely for some reason (like, let’s say it’s the least played game on the platform), it’s gone. Even if you were one of the few people who liked that title.
And that whole any device magic ONLY happens with a Chromecast AND a Stadia Controller from Google. So that free trial I mentioned for two months? It ONLY works on a computer, not even a tablet. A laptop, or a desktop, that’s it. Mobile and Tablets require a Stadia controller, and the TV needs that PLUS the Chromcast.
I only found that out after messing around with Steamworld Dig 2 to play it at all. I couldn’t even use my MacBook Pro with the installed Chrome browser when I tried. I tried the same browser on our Acer, and it worked fine. I couldn’t report the issue, because if you put “Something Else” in the error field, it just sends it with that. I would have appreciated a field to send my specific issue.
But when it did work, it worked amazingly well! I switched over to Destiny 2 and found it as responsive as any shooter I own. And if I were experiencing lag in Destiny 2, I would have contributed that to lag whether I was using Stadia or not.
Stadia is trying to be like Steam and Switch at the same time, while utilizing hardware you already have plus theirs. Google Stadia wants to have both worlds. They want this ubiquitous, revolutionary streaming service, but also want you to pay full price for games that, at the end of the day, you don’t own.
As for this trial, unless I had a Chromecast or a Stadia Controller to begin with, both with their own price tags, I can’t play on most of the devices advertised. It just wouldn’t recognize the touchpad in some cases.
While this latter point is a big sticking point, it’s the first observation that really stuck in my craw. I couldn’t help but think that, right now, I could be playing all these other, A-List titles on my computer with no load times, and it just felt…bleh. That’s really the best word to describe it. All I could muster was…bleh. Meh. Eh. That’s it.
I think if one said that it’s like Netflix, and titles leave all the time on there, I’d argue that Stadia’s problem is both quantity and quality of titles. You don’t have a dozen or so movies every month, you have thousands of options. And certain movies and shows aren’t behind an extra paywall. Hulu doesn’t have that problem either. Amazon Prime Video does that, but there are plenty, plenty, of options that are included with what you pay and its added on to Amazon Music and the actual Amazon Prime service.
I think if you’re already part of Google’s ecosystem, with a Chromcast and Chromebook, I don’t think it’s asking much to buy a controller on par with a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to add a bunch of functionality to what you already have.
But I don’t have any of that. I already have a Nintendo Switch and Steam. The next gen is around the corner too, and I’m definitely curious to see more of what they have to offer. If you don’t have a lot going on, try out Stadia for yourself if you’d like. It might end up having more of what you’re looking for. But if you have other options, it won’t hurt you to miss this one either.
