Is Google Stadia worth it?

[fiza]

With the recent announcement of Google closing their in-house gaming studio is it worth considering the stadia? Just read that they are doing a special offer if you pre-order Resident Evil Village you get Stadia premier edition for free. Game is £64.99. Stadia premier on its own is currently £53.99.

[paulkerton]

No. I got a free Stadia Premier kit, and I just didn't use it all that much.

The pricing model is wrong, it's still quite laggy on input, the image quality isn't great and it never seemed to connect my pad to the service wirelessly about 7 times out of 10.

I wasn't impressed at all. Sadly. Still, three months of subscription was required and I got a Chromecast Ultra, so I suppose I didn't do so bad out of it.

Edited March 22, 2021 by paulkerton

[Roberto]

Google has a habit of starting projects and losing interest in them if they don't see an immediate domination of all their competition by maybe a month after the launch date... and only a fool would think that was ever likely in the gaming market. Just think how much money Microsoft had to invest just to be one of three major gaming companies with the various xboxs over the years.

 

Anyway, Stadia is continuing this trend... and to put it bluntly: I won't take Google's product seriously until Google starts taking Google's products seriously.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Roberto

[Jcx500]

Apparently Cyberpunk is decent on there

[simpsonj]

If you can hard wire the Chromecast, or device accessing Stadia, then I've found the connection to be pretty solid and Cyberpunk runs very well. An annoyance is that my 2019 TV can't pass through the sound properly, so it has to be directly plugged into my Soundbar, something to do with Google cheap skating codec licences.

To be fair, it's a next gen console that is, sort of, free. But I suspect it's on the wane, I got it to play Cyberpunk, which it does. Whether I'll buy another game, or keep my Pro subscription, very much depends on Google as @Roberto pointed out.

[DrCheese]

Google has a habit of starting projects and losing interest in them if they don't see an immediate domination of all their competition by maybe a month after the launch date... and only a fool would think that was ever likely in the gaming market. Just think how much money Microsoft had to invest just to be one of three major gaming companies with the various xboxs over the years.

 

Anyway, Stadia is continuing this trend... and to put it bluntly: I won't take Google's product seriously until Google starts taking Google's products seriously.

 

This

 

Microsoft lost *loads* of money on Xbox until later in the 360's life - Only after have they started to make money.

 

Google stadia is rubbish - Who can seriously trust Google not to kill it off given their track record? It's not just a subscription service, you have to pay for the games as well.

[Jaan]

I have 2 stadia controller and 2 chromecast ultras.

 

I play cyberpunk 2077 allot.

 

I can't fault it

[TwistedHelixis]

it's still quite laggy on input, the image quality isn't great

 

Somen Reddit posts saying how much better it runs now, have you tried it recently?

[Ditto]

I'm not convinced Stadia will win through - anyone any recent experience. I should be getting 10 times internet speed jumping from 30 - 300 later this year due to gigabit scheme so think it might be more an option. Also, currently it's on discount https://store.google.com/gb/config/stadia_premiere_edition?hl=en-GB at £53.99.

[aicrd]

I'm not convinced Stadia will win through - anyone any recent experience. I should be getting 10 times internet speed jumping from 30 - 300 later this year due to gigabit scheme so think it might be more an option. Also, currently it's on discount https://store.google.com/gb/config/stadia_premiere_edition?hl=en-GB at £53.99.

 

Should say you dont need to buy that to run Stadia. It will run on any chromium compatable browser, and on Safari on iOS.

 

Stadia is free, you pay for the games, and they have a pro sub which includes 4k streaming and a free game each month.

 

In terms of my experience, it varied. I ended up going to GeForce Now, mainly because of the larger game library. I will say this however. Stadia is the most stable cloud gaming service I've used, latency is barely noticable, connection dropouts are rare and its overall a great experience. Unfortunately, it still falls short of everything else in terms of game support for example and it seems to me that its being neglected a lot by Google.

 

Should also say I've used GFN, Stadia, PS Now and XCloud.

[fiza]

So Google Stadia EOL has been announced as 18 January 2023.

 

 

Dear Stadia player,

 

On September 29, 2022, we announced that the Stadia service will be shut down on January 18, 2023. We’re getting in touch with important information on what this means for you as a Stadia player.

 

Availability

Stadia will remain available for gameplay until the service is shut down on January 18, 2023. During this period, you will have access to your game library, including Pro games if you had an active Pro subscription as of September 29, 2022. Be aware that publisher support for games may vary, and it’s possible that your gameplay experience may be affected during the shut-down period.

 

Refunds

Google is offering a refund to Stadia users for Stadia hardware purchases (Stadia Controller, Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premiere Edition, or Play and Watch with Google TV Package) made on the Google Store, and game purchases and add-on purchases made on the Stadia Store. The refund process will take some time, but we expect to have the majority of refunds processed by January 18, 2023. We expect to be able to automatically issue refunds for a substantial portion of transactions as a credit to the form of payment used to make the purchase. For purchases that we are not able to automatically refund, you will receive an email with details on how to obtain your refund.

 

Transactions and subscription fees

All commerce functionality (the ability to buy games, new subscriptions, add-ons or in-game purchases) on Stadia has now been disabled. Users who held an active Stadia Pro subscription as of September 29, 2022 will not be charged for access to their Pro library or other subscription entitlements during the shut-down period. Historical Stadia Pro subscription fees will not be eligible for refund.

 

Your Stadia account and data

You will be able to export your Stadia data, such as profile information, game stats, social data, save files and captures from Google Takeout until the Stadia service shuts down on January 18, 2023, after which point your Stadia data will be permanently deleted. You can also delete Stadia from your Google account at any time or delete your Google account entirely. Please note that deleting your Google account will result in deletion of all data and content in that account, including emails, photos, and files, and may increase the amount of time it takes to receive a refund of your Stadia purchases. Google may however retain certain data, including transaction data, for up to three years following the shut-down of the service for the purposes of processing refunds and providing customer support.

 

More information is available in the Help Centre, which will be updated as new information becomes available.

 

The Stadia team

[fiza]

Not surprised as they seemed to be winding down for some time. Didn’t play much but at least I will get a refund!

[Roberto]

Called it but still sorry, because I think its a neat idea. But I'm glad it looks like you're getting a refund. Edited September 30, 2022 by Roberto

[Jaan]

I'm absolutely gutted by this.

 

I'm a founder, and paid for pro ever since launch. we're a family of 5 and each (yes even the mrs) has a controller and multiple bought games. We played the multiplayer indie games as a family for a bit of fun every weekend for an hour or so.

 

I'm due a big refund, enough to by a console. However i'd prefer to have stadia. The whole point for me was not to have to keep buying hardware...... even though i literally have a wardrobe full of the consoles and games i've had since being 9 (39 now!).

 

The tech worked great! maybe just a little ahead of its time, and Google did not do enough to promote. It should have had a big TV advert push. Interesting that netflix have announced they are entering the game industry.

 

Well done to the Stadia team though. Shame of you Google!

[Cat_Jam148]

Another service to add to the Google graveyard... https://killedbygoogle.com/

 

Shame really, showed some promise in the early days.

[DrCheese]

hah, I was right

 

A big problem is that Google have a reputation for killing stuff off, so when they launched something like this the first thing people thought was "How long will it last?" & no one wanted to risk buying into a service like it - Especially because you had to buy the games separately as well. Googlee then left it under resourced so it was bound to happen.

Catch 22 & I don't know how Google will ever shake off it's reputation.

 

Gamepass has completely and utterly eaten it's lunch & only costs £9.99 a month, including the XCloud stuff.

[Dan2025]

hah, I was right

 

A big problem is that Google have a reputation for killing stuff off, so when they launched something like this the first thing people thought was "How long will it last?" & no one wanted to risk buying into a service like it - Especially because you had to buy the games separately as well. Googlee then left it under resourced so it was bound to happen.

Catch 22 & I don't know how Google will ever shake off it's reputation.

 

Gamepass has completely and utterly eaten it's lunch & only costs £9.99 a month, including the XCloud stuff.

 

 

It's a shame as I did buy Cyberpunk when it first came out on Stadia as I hadn't built my new PC yet and it worked really well. Then never touched it.

Be a nice unexpected refund at least.

 

Game pass is insanely good value, with some new releases coming straight out on it. (Plague Tale etc)

Quick guide if anyone's interested to get ultimate cheap, works best with inactive membership.

-Buy 3months gold via cd keys sometimes as low as 3.99

- Activate, turning on auto renew for an extra month.

- Cancel auto renew.

- Activate another turning on auto renew for extra month.

- Repeat until near limit of 3 years (about 8-9x)

- Buy 1month ultimate from ebay for around £1.50

= almost 3 years of ultimate for around £40 dependent on cd keys pricing.