Uncompetative loves Google Stadia box - 10.7 TeraFLOPS GPU 16 GB HBM RAM 2.7 GHz AMD CPU 4K60 HDR !
1Google Stadia box has 16 GB HBM RAM, 10.7 TeraFLOPS GPU, 2.7 GHz AMD CPU with Hyperthreading, faster bus than Scorpio, WiFi controller with Share / Broadcast on RHS.
However, this is a devkit similar in spec to the current iMac Pro which I thought would be what developers would use whilst waiting for the PS5 DevKit to come along at 11 TeraFLOPS.
This is available from https://stadia.dev
Follow it on Twitter for further announcements @GoogleStadia
*The future of gaming is not a box. It's a place.*
What this means is 4K60 HDR on TV (via Chromecast no console), or Tablet, or cheap PC, or smartphone - essentially, anywhere running Google Chrome web browser.
They already did successful tests of _Assassin's Creed: Odyssey_ running on Chrome browser on PCs at 1080p60 but this will do up to 4K60 on its release sometime in 2019.
They have created their own 1st Party Studio.
They made no mention of what games were coming to Stadia other than _Doom: Eternal_ from id Software. The GDC event was more targeted at developers (Game Developers Conference).
They said that they would talk about games in another event in the Summer. This could be at E3 in June, but it could just as easily be another livestream (more likely as it is much cheaper).
Ironically, the livestream had four faults disrupting it briefly, with one of them a _deja vu_ glitch like the cat in _The Matrix_ a couple of the visual disruptions were quite bad but only lasted a second, this could well be what we may have to deal with if using this infrastructure, but it could be that the WiFi was overloaded due to attendees, this happened to Apple at the Moscone Center so badly they had to ask people to turn off all their devices. No one did as they all wanted to liveblog the event. Poor Apple.
Sorry, the video is a dog's dinner. I can only upload 15 minutes and I have packed by iMac away ahead of moving house so couldn't edit it other than scrubbing over it, and re-recording it.
I don't like the Stadia name.
All their names for things are bad. They have a form of User Created Achievements, but probably can't call it that. Developers can take a painting or any image and apply its aesthetic to a game using Machine Learning. The Share button is conveniently placed on the right hand side of the controller so you don't have to take your thumb off the Left Stick to press it. You can broadcast to YouTube at 4K60 and this comes from the datacenter, so for consumers there is no box you just use the Google Chrome web browser.
They support cross-play between platforms, pause and resume of gameplay as you go from device to device, with instant resume (no waiting for the stream to start like Netflix) which is a great thing for continuity of gameplay and those who commute by train. They support split screen on steroids with many subscreens. They can handle Battle Royale with 1000 players and have distributed processing of physics in the datacenter. Essentially, you are playing via your WiFi Stadia controller direct to the ISP then from there direct to the datacenter, with the game running on what is essentially a supercomputer as it can scale to use multiple servers in a rack. This can mean massively multiplayer online games with very large maps.
_Crackdown 3_ was shown with full city-wide destruction. Only it was a demo of the power of their 'Cloud' compute.
That will teach Microsoft to make bold claims, for Google's presentation this was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it footnote, not an ambitious promise that flops after eight years and six devs.
Don't expect to use this without Unlimited Fibre broadband. Data caps won't be your friend.
There is nothing to download, you just play on a device you already own. No console unless you count the DevKit I want to get.
No talk about pricing or subscription model yet. It is possible they will have a Game Pass / Netflix system where they give publishers a proportion of your subscription based on how much of their game you play. So, if you play _DOOM: Eternal_ a lot then Bethesda get the bulk of your subscription minus the fee Google take for running the infrastructure of distributed servers. Yet, if you are more into _Assassin's Creed: Odyssey_ (not confirmed but very likely) then Ubisoft get most of your money. This means, hypothetically, I could play _Destiny_ in my kitchen on my iPad Pro using my DualShock 4 or XBOX Elite controller at maximum Retina resolution and 60 FPS, with Activision getting the biggest share of my subscription, similar to how YouTube channels gain ad revenue. NONE OF THIS IS CONFIRMED. ALL OF THIS PARAGRAPH IS PURE SPECULATION. As the games were all full screen I don't think we will see intrusive advertising as a way to offset the cost.
I was really very impressed. Like, woah.... and WOW.
This interests me as it could help me bring my intergalactic MMORTSFPSRPG _Multiverse_ to market in a few years time.
*Absolutely zero mention of VR.*