Easy Allies Podcast #154 - Video

The stadia announcement wasn't technical enough to be a dev show and it wasn't informative enough to be a consumer show. I have a hunch they didn't show Doom E cause in rehearsals it was glitchy. They set it up like they were going to demo it, otherwise it's basically just ID coming out like "hey we're here too". If they show it and it performs badly, it's dead before arrival.

Kif

You cannot "Regardless of the tech,"... this is a Keynote at GDC "Game Developers Conference" but you view it like it's an E3 Conferences, that's why you are scratching your heads.

Nindies just came after the podcast was recorded. Happens often

Rodrigo Aoun

For the love of all that is good in this world, please give Rufus his own mini mic. He's been on the pod since the beginning, show that music loving furball some L&R!

Chris K

Yeah but, this all relies on a customers internet speed. And the internet infrastructure in the US is terrible. People underestimate how many people have poor internet speeds. And for this kind of product, it needs to work flawlessly. Imagine stadia launching and millions of people have lag, stutters, disconnects. Even if its not Stadia fault, they would have a disaster on their hands. Marketing and PR alone would be a nightmare. So they have a right to be skeptical. Especially if they are making big claims that they can hit 4K 60 FPS HDR day one with 30mbs speeds. And even if they manage to get streaming with no drops, that doesn’t mean it won’t have input lag. This literally needs to match the physical version or console versions, or its a failure. The concept of stadia is brilliant. Its a game changer. But they have a right to be skeptical based on internet speeds - which is out of Google’s Hands.

Mewgia

I live and serve in a rural community untouched by high speed internet. YouTube trickles in at SD resolution. Kids here have last-gen consoles. Me, I rely on physical media, and if I need to download a large update, I lug my console to the office. Online multiplayer is out of the question. I love cloud-enabled gaming as an ~option,~ but I don't want people to rely on a centralized service to access exclusive games. I think decentralized, client-side computing will remain the key to independent work and play. When I consider Stadia, I can't ignore the failures in Google's wake. Most recently, Google Fiber abandoned thousands of customers in Louisville, Kentucky after installing cut-rate infrastructure. When their "nano-trenches" proved too shallow to protect data lines, Google decided their customers weren't worth the cost to fix the system. For all that Louisville offered Google, they're left with nothing but a bunch of roads to fix. Maybe Google's too big to fail, but their services aren't. It'd be nice if I could play Stadia someday, assuming ISPs can invest in better infrastructure. But I'd like cloud-streaming to be an option, not some inevitable future.

Cloisterance

I'm so sad about how you guys are handeling this Stadia thing. you clearly don't understand the difference between Stadia and for example; PS Now. THe big; simpel difference is that Stadia uses extreme cloud and cluster computing. When you stream a PS Now game; it's 1 instance of the game on the Sony server that is send to your screen. With Stadia; it's a cluster of powerful computers that serve the game to your screen.

Randy Verschueren

As a game developer myself, I'm supposed to be the audience for this and frankly it doesn't interest me at all. Obviously a magic world where games run better than on consoles but have no barrier of entry sounds great, but I don't believe that to be the case, and here's why : 1) Pricing. Studios already have a hard time making ends meet unless they are breakout successes and they are making between $10 - $40 per sale depending on the cost of the game. There is literally no way Google could make enough money on a monthly service to come even remotely close to providing a similar amount of income to every game on that platform. Spotify pays artists insanely small amounts of money, but they can survive since they have always made the bulk of their money from concerts. Netflix is another scenario where movies make very little money compared to what they would make it people were still buying Blu Rays. However, luckily they still make the bulk of their money via the Box Office. Sadly, videogames don't have that. The vast majority of their income comes from the direct sale of the game itself. We have nothing to fall back on if our income is destroyed. Games go to Gamepass because Microsoft pays them a lot of money to be there and if a game isn't selling well due to age or popularity, then it's likely that Microsoft can give them more than what they would make otherwise. It's a system that supports at-risk games, not very successful ones. It essentially gives a safety net but removes the possibility of large income from anyone other than the platform owner. They could try to charge $60 per game but as you all mentioned, hardcore gamers likely won't buy the concept of paying $60 for a single player game that they can't play if the servers go down or drops in quality if their family is watching Netflix. 2) Bandwidth/Data Caps. ISPs in the US limit our data usage far too much for this to work. Netflix, which streams at 24fps uses an average of 1 - 3GB of data per hour at 1080p. 4k costs about 4 - 7GB of data per hour. Imagine gaming at 60 FPS 4K or their insane 8K 120FPS. Most people in the country would be paying way more the cost a console ins a single month to pay for those overages. It's been reported that Stadia will use up to 20GB of data per hour. That's absolutely insane. <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/features/google-stadia-profitability-protection-privacy-burning-questions/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/features/google-stadia-profitability-protection-privacy-burning-questions/</a> At the end of a day, if there's a magic system that can make game studios more money, be cheaper for consumers, and not affect the quality of games as we know them, then I'm all in. I just don't see how that's possible, but I wouldn't have to wonder if this if they had just showed us huh?

Seems like a lot of dissatisfaction and negativity in the responses this week, so I just wanted to voice that I (as always) loved the podcast. I think your HOTTAKE regarding Stadia was interesting, especially regarding the weak reveal. The technology is capable of changing the industry, but it won't be a smooth ride and it won't happen overnight. Regardless of the tech, the presentation at GDC was pretty weak and left a lot of us scratching our heads. You are not alone in your views, Allies.

Nick Geurtsen

definitely spent too long on stadia, pretty sure most us saw the reaction stream, nothing had changed since that, really a shame you didn't react to nindies possibly due to the backlash of the stadia stream too :(

sam

No, MatPat says this is possible during his State Share pitch <a href="https://youtu.be/3l1VjT32niA?t=1h11m15s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/3l1VjT32niA?t=1h11m15s</a>

Skankman

I have to call out kyle saying that "you can right click on a streamer and start playing where he was" is wrong. all they talked about is that you can queue up which Damiani points out. Kyle was at the reaching and I am blaffeled that he would come to that conclusion and make this remake and it doesn't matter if its ment to be funny or not it repsrecent the product and what was said wrongly.

Christophe Fettouhi

did you see that presentation?

Why the extreme hostility towards Stadia? Have you guys seen the Digital Foundry report on Stadia? or tried Project Stream? Technically it's possible to do and that's why they are working towards that goal. On top of that they are announcing it in GDC "GAME DEVELOPER CONFERENCE" and obviously it's mainly for the developers, but you guys want to trash it like they are announcing it in E3 without any details or pricing!? I thought Easy Allies are all in for the positivity.

Cool Cool Kyle

Shoulderguy

What's the point of the evil wizard check in bit at the end.

Cash

Stadia is positing itself as the future of gaming! I think its entirely appropriate to respond in kind with how little it may fit into that future.

Mags Moratto

Did we really need to crap on Stadia for 40 minutes ? Especially mainly with hypothesis ("it's not gonna work", "Youtube streaming is not successful", etc...) ? Guess I won't watch the whole podcast this week.

Térence Caron

There'll be a patreon post called "This Week In Love &amp; Respect", it's usually posted on Sundays I believe, you can submit there!

fuyunotabi

Does one do suggestions for Glennys Cauldron here? My ingredient would be: "When given the option to choose via dialogue the fontcolour of the highlighted pick will be greyed out while the unpicked option stays white so you always think you are picking the wrong one"

Just a head's up for Ian, DMC5 doesn't do the unbeatable boss thing. When you fight Urizen (the final boss) at the beginning of the game, it is 100% possible to win that fight--which allows you to instantly beat the game. Here's what happens: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B1Xx0wzCMw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B1Xx0wzCMw</a> That ingredient is safe with the wizard whose name I cannot spell.

Nick Geurtsen

Do you disrespect the HOTTAKE, sir?

iconmaster

I was really bummed--we just missed it

Easy Allies

You're spoiling me with how early these are coming out.

iconmaster

No NPDs? :(