Google Launches Stadia

Google launched Stadia, its troubled game streaming service, today with a small library of games, missing features, and many complaints.

“Starting today, playing games on your TV in 4K without a console, streaming games to a Chrome browser on a simple laptop, or enjoying the biggest games ever made on your phone is a reality,” Google vice president Phil Harrison announced. “It seems impossible until you experience it. Stadia Founder’s Edition starts arriving today, making the world’s best games available to players everywhere without a dedicated console or expensive PC.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Well, it’s not arriving today for everyone, which is part of the problem: Many who pre-ordered the Stadia Founder’s Edition won’t receive the product for days, and many others saw their preorders unceremoniously canceled by Google in error.

Looking past the Google-centric blogs, the early reviews are painful. The New York Times warned its readers not to replace their existing video game consoles just yet thanks to its long setup time, and “glitches, bugs, and quality issues.” Forbes said it was “a technical and conceptual disaster.”

Google will likely fix the early mistakes and the service will, of course, improve over time. But the real worry, of course, is that Google will flounder around for a year or two and then just cancel the service, as it has so many times in the past.

Until then, we can look forward to Brad’s review of Google Stadia. You know, if it ever arrives first.

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 12 comments

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    19 November, 2019 - 2:39 pm

    <p>I was going to cancel around the time Paul announced that he was going to. But by that time, I was charged for it. And it didn't ship until last night for a Wednesday delivery. So, trying to decide if I want to accept or refuse order based upon honest, early reviews. </p>

  • OwenM

    Premium Member
    19 November, 2019 - 3:04 pm

    <p>This review in particular doesn't paint a bright future for the service:</p><p><br></p><p>https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2019/11/18/google-stadia-launch-review-a-technical-conceptual-disaster</p&gt;

  • itrimble

    Premium Member
    19 November, 2019 - 7:25 pm

    <p>I thought I cancelled mine,as I couldn't find any receipt in the play store. Then I checked my bank statement and noticed a fresh charge on my account. </p><p><br></p><p>The early YouTube reviews are mixed at best. I remain optimistic. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    19 November, 2019 - 11:41 pm

    <p>I got my box today and got my code around 3:45 pm. I can say when using the included Chromecast everything worked great work 4k HDR and I couldn't feel any latency issues. Now if you're playing through the chrome browser that could be different but again through the Chromecast ultra it was awesome.</p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      20 November, 2019 - 9:55 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#490436">In reply to Nicholas_Kathrein:</a></em></blockquote><p>I played Tomb Raider via Chrome this morning and I am pleased to say it looked and played very well. </p>

  • Vladimir Carli

    Premium Member
    20 November, 2019 - 4:07 am

    <p>The review on Forbes mostly focuses on the connectivity problems of the reviewer. I don't have any lag or stuttering, so that makes it 1-1. Moreover these problems will affect always someone, regardless of the streaming service they use. I really don't see Microsoft making a better job than google at handling connectivity hick-ups. Just look at what happens at word online and onenote sync when there is a connectivity issue and what happens when the same problems are on google apps. Google just starts from where you were, onenote stops syncing forever.</p><p>I didn't receive chromecast yet so i am testing only on chrome, with good connection (&gt;250mbit/sec). For now no problems on mac, windows or chromebook. Unfortunately it does not work on iOs yet.</p>

  • codymesh

    20 November, 2019 - 6:16 am

    <p>and once again, Google makes another service "available" on the PC without a native app, opting to deliver games as if it's just another web app</p><p><br></p><p>delusional</p>

  • Greg Green

    20 November, 2019 - 8:53 am

    <p>Other reviews are not good. It’s strength seems to be chromecast, PC is stuck at 1080p with stuttering and artifacts, and phones are a ‘disaster’ according to PCWorld.</p><p><br></p><p>So their biggest market has their worst performance. Also it’s not cross play so multiplayer worlds are on stadia servers without any crossover with PC or console worlds. PCWorld reviewer was wandering around on empty planets.</p>

  • dougkinzinger

    20 November, 2019 - 11:35 am

    <p>Hahahahahaha! &lt;ahem&gt; – hahahaha! I know Google fears xCloud, but man, they should have waited until they worked out the bugs. Better to delay and satisfy than to ship early and disappoint.</p>

  • skolvikings

    20 November, 2019 - 12:23 pm

    <p>When Paul sours on a service, he really pours it on. LOL. I mean, it literally just launched and some of the comments below indicate it's actually working fine for people.</p><p><br></p><p>That all said, the point that Google might just kill it in a year or two is valid, based on Google's history with such things. I'm not buying one.</p>

  • Patrick3D

    20 November, 2019 - 12:38 pm

    <p>It really has been a troubled launch, even the host of the largest Stadia-focused podcast (who has a direct contact within Stadia) didn't get his code when expected and after several hours only got his code as a result of someone else within Google intervening to save Google from further embarrassment by manually messaging him a code.</p><p>It's quite hilarious that one of the worlds largest email companies biggest difficulties was managing to send out emails to accounts hosted on their own service.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC