Instead, you have to launch a game, and then tell that game to start casting to the Chromecast. I hope that the process is easier on launch day, but for posterity, I wanted to include my experience here.)Ī Google Stadia controller alongside a Chromecast Ultra (Image credit: Tom's Guide) (Google reps explained to me that the level of complication was partially due to Stadia's pre-launch state, and that everyday users won't have as much trouble setting it up. But even acknowledging those difficulties, the setup process for Stadia was one of the most confusing and irritating I've ever gone through. Consoles require tedious updates and installations, and a new PC may be nothing but a handful of components until you cobble it together yourself. It's never fun to set up a new gaming system. This made Stadia a tough sell at first for those without 4K TVs (particularly since 4K streaming was not available on PCs at launch, either), although the situation has improved since then. There is also a free "Stadia Base" service, which finally launched in April 2020, five months after Stadia itself. A Stadia Pro subscription will also get you a complimentary game every now and then, as well as occasional discounts on other games.
Google offers a Stadia Pro subscription for $10 per month, which you'll need if you want to stream games in 4K resolution with 5.1 surround sound. However, if you're wondering whether Stadia costs anything on top of the games themselves, that gets a little confusing. Google Stadia on a computer, as well as a smartphone (Image credit: Tom's Guide) But as a reality, it's just another way to play some extremely common and not terribly new video games, but with a few extra perks and a lot of extra inconveniences. But is there really a huge audience that's been waiting breathlessly all these years to play Destiny, or Tomb Raider, or Just Dance, but is also unwilling to buy a gaming platform?Īs an experiment, Stadia is novel and potentially democratizing. It's also appealing to think that aspiring gamers can now jump into big-budget mainstream titles without having to drop $300 on a console like the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, or much more than that on one of the best gaming PCs.
But that need comes up less often than you might think in the course of an everyday routine.
The ability to play games anywhere, on any platform, is appealing - sure. My biggest takeaway from my Google Stadia review, though, is that I simply don't understand who needs it. A number of important features are still missing, with only vague hints of release timetables. TV, laptop and smartphone streaming all have bizarre (and different) limitations. The streaming was never as seamless as I wanted it to be.
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