Google Reveals Stadia, their Instant Access Game Streaming Service
Google Reveals Stadia, their Instant Access Game Streaming Service
Want to game on your Ultra HD Chromecast? Stadia can do that. Need to run DOOM Eternal on your Chromebook? Stadia can do that. Need to move from that Chromebook to your phone then your TV? Yes, Stadia can do that. Google’s Stadia game service is incredibly versatile, with game streams operating at up to 4K 60FPS on custom AMD hardware.Â
Google has claimed that its service runs using a custom AMD Radeon graphics card, a GPU which claims that the company claims offers 10.7 TFLOPS of graphics performance over 56 compute units. That’s more than what AMD’s RX Vega 56 offers, and more compute performance than both the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro combined. Better still, Google will also allow developers to run games across two of these graphics cards, offering multi-GPU support.Â
From the outset, Gamers will be able to use Google’s Stadia service to offer 1080p 60FPS streams and 4K 60FPS streams, though 8K streams are planned as higher resolutions are adopted.Â
On the multiplayer side, Stadia’s cloud nature prevents tampering and potential cheating, with Google planning to offer cross-platform gaming to their users, assuming that other gaming companies like Microsoft and Sony are willing to play ball.Â
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Through Stadia, users of Chrome can watch a game trailer on YouTube, hit Play Now and be playing the game in as little as five seconds, opening up amazing possibilities to gamers. So far, ID Software, Epic Games, Crytek and AMD have been revealed as software/hardware partners.Â
This is a developing story, and more information will become available regarding Stadia over the coming hours/days.Â
Stadia will launch in 2019, starting in the USA, Canada, the UK and several other European nations. No pricing information has been released at this time.Â
You can join the discussion on Google’s Stadia service on the OC3D Forums.Â