Sega/Google Rumor

That Google is supposed to release a streaming console, that is known for some time. This idea of a partnership with Sega is certainly just wishful thinking (I mean, Sega isn't a very big deal nowadays and would hardly make a difference in a partnership for a new console).

As for a Google console, I'm either expecting a streaming machine (a new OnLive) or another Android box (a new Ouya). Those are not very good prospects, unless Google is really serious about it and wants to throw their weight and a lot of money behind it.

Google announced the Google Stadia and it's a streaming thing (no word on Sega having anything to do with it). So here we go to another OnLive-like service.

I hate the very idea of these things: you buy games that you don't own - if the service ends, you lose all your games; it makes preservation of games impossible (when a licensed game is pulled out, it disappears forever); from a pc perspective, there's no possibility for mods or to edit .ini files or adjust any configuration outside the games, since no files are on your machine; you have to be always online - if the internet goes down, no games; because of video compression, the graphics look worse; you need spotless, reliable and fast internet connection without data caps, a luxury for very few people, and even then you need to live very close to a server - otherwise you get lag even on a fast connection; most importantly, even on the best possibilities you will still have lag on single player games - this makes playing any precision or fast-reaction genres impossible, so say goodbye to 2d platformers, shmups, fighting games and character action titles (Devil May Cry, Nier Automata and the like).

It's also important to remember that Google is known to drop their projects: failures like Allo, Google Glass and Google Fiber paint a dark future for Stadia. Just imagine spending a lot of money on games and then it gets shutdown and takes all your games with it.

So even if their perfected the technology (which they didn't), it's terrible on principle.

I wrote to them personally telling them that they should launch Stadia with a remaster of Sonic '06. I hope they do.



To be fair, and to give them some credit, it's basically like a renting service, similar to what Blockbuster was in the late 90s.

In the 90s you would buy the Konami, and Capcom stuff, but you would rent stuff by Acclaim, and the like.

The same can be said today. We want to buy Ace Combat, Devil May Cry, and Sekiro aka Tenchu, but we would rent something like The Division 2, Tom Clancy, or whatever Far Cry game is out there.

Yeah, it has some potential to eventually become the standard, but that could take many years from now. We simply don't have the Internet infrastructure in the West to support something like that.

Even today, after the success of streaming movies online, physical copies still sell on Blu-rays, and I doubt gaming will be the exception for that.

I still think it is pretty remarkably they can pull off almost Netflix numbers while streaming games instead of video. That's voodoo stuff right there.

It is so out there, that I'm still a little skeptical about it, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not excited for it because it is not something that benefits me, but I'm sure it can be useful for many people.

Exactly why it sounds like black magic. They were supposedly gaming at 4K and 60 FPS with a download connection of 30 mbps. That is literally insane.

Yeah, most people data plans would make it too expensive for the average player.

At that point you can use that money to buy a decent PC instead.