Google Stadia First Impressions

Google’s event for their Stadia game streaming service has provided additional insight into the cost model and bandwidth requirements. There are plenty of ISPs that implement monthly data caps between 300GB and 2TB of data per account. Some providers offer options to pay extra for unlimited data while others will milk their customer base dry using incremental fees for each overage. Recognizing that 4K gaming at 60 frames per second with surround sound will consume up to 35 Mbps means that data caps may limit utilization of the service.

It will be interesting to see what advantage Google gets as first mover. E3 is rapidly approaching and Microsoft is reportedly announcing their cloud gaming offering which may directly compete with Stadia from the functionality and capability perspective. While Apple may have misfired with their News+ service, the fact that they’re adding support for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers may signal that their upcoming game service will cater to both casual and core gamers.