Why Google Stadia will be the Catalyst to Big Changes in the Video Game Industry

On March 19, 2019, Google officially revealed Stadia, their Cloud Gaming Service which allows users to stream video games on any platform with a stable internet connection. This announcement came as no surprise, as it had been in beta for months as Project Stream and already had users in the United States streaming Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through their Google Chrome Browser. It is Google’s approach to entering this market and the first time we have seen such a big tech player join this lucrative industry since Microsoft joined with the introduction of Xbox in 2001. Although many were skeptical of Google’s offering touting concerns with graphical fidelity and latency, to many people’s surprise with the right internet connection speed (around 25 Mbps which is a little over the average 20 Mbps in North America) , the service held up very well only having minor graphical dips and small latency issues. It was quite impressive as a beta and definitely delivered on what they promised their beta testers. They were actually able to play a AAA game with the highest graphical settings possible, on virtually any PC they desired as long as they had an above average internet connection. This future that Google has shown will be the reason for a major shift in the next generation of consoles and the future of the video game industry in general.

The Various Platforms where Google would like to enable Stadia

Even in our stream-everything world, video games currently require the purchase of hardware and the download of software in order to function. The minimum amount of money needed to buy any hardware that can run modern games is 400 dollars and that will get you either an Xbox One or a PS4, hardware that came out almost 6 years ago. These consoles allow you to play the games smoothly and offer a decent graphical resolution which for most consumers is more than satisfactory. The more hardcore gamers invest in Gaming Setups that could cost them from $1000 to $2000 dollars to get the best graphical fidelity and really experience what modern technology has to offer. The necessity to have specialized hardware for your games is archaic in a time where cloud computing is dominating the world and with the quick advancements in GPU’s, this hardware falls behind after 2–3 years. To add to this one AAA game can now take from 40 GB to 100 GB of space on your hard drive making having multiple games downloaded and ready to play limited on systems that have less than 500GB of space. In a world dominated by Cloud Computing and Storage, the Video Game Industry remains one of the last industries to not push their products into this space.

This is where Google Stadia stands to be the enactor of change. As said before, it offers access to AAA games with the best graphics without the requirement of specialized hardware or local storage. Just like how Netflix took away the requirement of owning a Blu-Ray or DVD player to watch movies, Stadia looks to take away the need for consoles or gaming PC’s to play the latest video games. Of course, there will be some who want to have the ability to play locally or not have to deal with some minor issues of input lag and latency but for most consumers, this platform will more than fit their requirements especially when a company like Google is heading this new shift. Stadia takes away the need to upgrade your hardware every couple of years as Google will internally upgrade their GPU’s as their old ones become more obsolete. With Google already investing so much into their Cloud Platform, no doubt the issues that plague the service currently will be mitigated or reduced to the point where it will be usable for most genres of games even the ones requiring very low latency like First Person Shooters. Google is not the first streaming service in the industry but the technology and resources that they possess especially in the Cloud Computing Space is second to none and therefore there is no doubt in my mind that Google can implement such a service with the best technology possible (unless Amazon also decides to jump into the space. Then it would be a toss-up between the two). In the future, Google envisions you no longer require a console in your living room with your Chromecast, Smart TV, and even Smartphone being more than enough to play any game you would like.

Stadia is another service Google can offer consumers because of their cloud platform

Sony and Microsoft have not been challenged by another tech company for years now and it will be interesting to see how this changes their directions in the gaming industry. Sony and Microsoft still have the edge of being in the gaming market for so long and thus having greater insight into what the overall gaming community wants allowing them to cater their products more effectively. With the next generation of consoles looming, I fully expect them to have some sort of response to this, else risk having the same fate as a company like Blackberry slowly whittling out of their target market. Right now, they each have large consumer bases in the industry and have high customer loyalty so with the right response no doubt they can ensure they mitigate any potential for disaster in the future. I am very interested to see what Google has in store for their own platform and what the future holds for the video game industry in general. There are no doubts in my mind that it is due for a major change and soon established companies will have to innovate to make sure that they are on the right side of it.

The Big 4 Players in the Gaming Industry. Picture Source: Games Radar

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https://www.lynda.com/Unity-tutorials/Careers-Game-Industry/456825-2.html 

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Thanks for reading,

Daivik Goel