I’ve always admired Google for seeing the future specifically in terms of mass adoption rather than just technological capability.
Hardcore gamers may revolt, but that’s not the audience. The barrier to mass adoption is not higher FPS or better rendering or addictive gameplay. Those are all amazing already. The barrier is buying a high-end gaming rig and a bunch of expensive titles, and then spending an hour on download and installation every time. Now the operant conditioning loop is reduced to seconds. (Note: IANAG)
This comment falls into the pattern the pattern I've been seeing: people who like technology but don't care about games (including Sundar Pichai himself) are enamored with Stadia. People who actually care about games are very concerned about what it'll do to the industry. It's not (mainly) the technology that's in doubt; Google is great at technology. The fear is in the way it'll change the status quo between people who play games and companies that make them.
One of the things I think is under-discussed (although the article does touch on this) is that this is another move to take customers from buyers to renters. It used to be that customers bought things, and then they owned them - games included.
Now, we've removed legal "ownership" basically entirely, as well as physical "ownership" when dealing with online stores when it comes to video games. This would take that a step further - now you don't even own the hardware producing your content - instead you'll likely need to pay an ongoing fee for access, as well as probably a fee for content.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 27.1 ms ] threadHardcore gamers may revolt, but that’s not the audience. The barrier to mass adoption is not higher FPS or better rendering or addictive gameplay. Those are all amazing already. The barrier is buying a high-end gaming rig and a bunch of expensive titles, and then spending an hour on download and installation every time. Now the operant conditioning loop is reduced to seconds. (Note: IANAG)
At least for the foreseeable future there will still be Nintendo for those of us who hate the new gaming economy.
Now, we've removed legal "ownership" basically entirely, as well as physical "ownership" when dealing with online stores when it comes to video games. This would take that a step further - now you don't even own the hardware producing your content - instead you'll likely need to pay an ongoing fee for access, as well as probably a fee for content.