Everything You Need To Know About Stadia [Updated]

Published by Lamin Kanteh on October 28, 2019October 28, 2019

Update:

Stadia Reddit AMA: Missing Features, Stadia UI Demo and More

Google recently held a Stadia Reddit AMA and the company made some interesting as well as surprising announcements that will surely cause a few grunts especially among those purchased the Sradia Founders Edition.

A lot of the features that were supposed to make Staida stand out won’t be made available on November 19th. Those hoping to sink a few hours into online Multiplayer games like Destiny with their buddies will have to role solo. The buddy pass that allows you add a friend who will have three-months of Stadia access will only be available several weeks after launch.

The Reddit AMA was hosted by Stadia Director of Product Andrey Doronichev and publisher lead Beri Lee did how showcased some great features coming to Stadia.

There is a demo showing how the Stadia controller can be tethered to your phone for the first time and how the platform’s UI will be layout.

There will be a status indicator for online, idle, busy, or offline and there will be a People’s icon that shows your friend’s list when tapped.

A Menu System was also demonstrated giving you complete control over how you want Stadia to stream You can pick the game’s stream quality and the corresponding data usage, with the lowest being “Limited data usage” at 720p eating up about 4.5GB every hour.

“Best visual quality” which streams at 4K HDR resolution devours a behemoth 20GB per hour. The “Balanced” setting lets the platform “determine the best experience, based on your internet connection speed.”

But features like Family Sharing won’t come until next year with the company stating parents wanting to control what their kids play on Stadia will have to buy a second copy for their kid’s account.

Furthermore, only the Chromecast Ultra shipped with your edition will be able to access Stadia at launch. Because according to Google, firmware incompatibility found in non-edition Chromecast ultras will render them useless with the Stadia. Doronichev did say an over-the-air update for preowned variants of Chromecast Ultra will available later down the line.

Features that let players join other games and place content into games like Stadia Connect, State Share and Crowd Play will all be missing at launch. Games supporting Stream Connect as well as State Share and Crowd Play are slated to arrive next year.

Stadia’s prowess will be fully tested come November 19 or a couple of weeks later when the first batch of users get to finally get the chance to toy around with Google’s streaming service.

This, if it goes to plan, should be the first real-world test drive of the platform allowing the search giant to fully gauge both the practicality, capabilities, and functionality of Stadia in conjunction with real-world situations. This should help determine what factors play in different varying issues that may arise like connectivity problems, latency issues, etc.

There will certainly be a lot of questions to be asked and we will be here to help solve them together with a designated Stadia group.
On that note, here is everything you need to know about Stadia.

The Controller

The Stadia controller itself will come in three colors of clearly white, just black, night blue– which is only available in the Founders Edition–, and Wasabi. You take a look at the color options below.

WiFi connectivity options include dual-band 2.5 to 5GHz frequencies and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac connectivity. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 and the controllers feature a 3.5mm headphone jack that is compatible with both microphone and without.
And then you have USB-C for charging, wired gameplay and accessories such as USB-C headphones.

The Stadia controller weighs about 268g (9.45 oz) and measures 163 mm (6.42 in) x 105 mm (4.13 in) x 65 mm (2.56 in). Added to this, Google includes the designated Voice Assistant button and Microphone for Google Assistant integration with games. There is also a “Capture Button” that enables you to quickly access image and video captures. The device is powered by an internal rechargeable Li-Ion battery.

Editions And Subscriptions

Recently as par the Verge’s coverage, the Founders Editions ran out and only the Premier Edition is currently available for purchase. However, since the Founders Edition Controller of the Stadia subscription tier has run out, Google is only offering the Premier version to new subscribers.

The Founder’s and Premier Editions of Google Stadia both come at the same pre-order price of $130 in the US, and both include a Chromecast Ultra, Google Stadia controller, Stadia access to Destiny 2, and a three-month subscription to Stadia Pro (which provides higher resolution stream access and monthly freebies, usually for $10 a month).

But only those lucky enough to be Founder’s Edition buyers get an exclusive dark blue controller, a three-month buddy pass, the first choice of a Stadia username for your account, and a Founder’s Badge on that account.

According to The Verge, some of the games announced with Stadia won’t be immediately available to play when Stadia launches on November 19 as many have previously presumed. Google said the games will, however, be available once you receive your controller.

A bit confusing if you ask me since according to what Google announced, everyone who preordered the Founders Edition will receive a special invite code that sort of activates your Stadia account.

Adding to that, both the Founders and Premier Editions of Stadia come with three-month access to gameplay support for up to 4K and 60fps.
This covers only the editions as how you to decide to pay for the subscriptions determines how you access games on Stadia.

With Stadia Pro, the monthly subscription fee is $9.99 per month and this grants you access to Stadia’s game library including Destiny 2 and Assasin Creed Odyessy.
However, with the Stadia base (which only supports 1080p and 60fps) and you can only purchase the games you want to play individually.

Stadia Availability and Requirement

Stadia is going to be available in most western markets including the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Netherlands. On an important note, Stadia is currently not available for residents of Guam and Hawaii. Porto Rico and Alaska on the other hand, are going to be supported by launch.

The requirements to access Stadia hardware wise are pretty straightforward for the various hardware platforms since the service is going to be made available for multiple display configurations.

If you want to use Stadia on your TV, you are going to need a Google account (some accounts are not supported like Google for Work or Google for Education), a Stadia Subscription of your choice –see above — a Stadia controller, Official Stadia app, Chromecast Ultra and a speedy internet connection (10mbs or greater).

Prefer using Stadia on your personal computer? Like on TV you are going to need a Google account and Stadia sub and Chrome browser for PC, Stadia Android App for Chromebooks and Android Smartphones and Stadia iOS app for iPhones.

Full List of Games Available on Stadia at Launch with Trailers

Previously announced. Refer to the update at the top.

• Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Borderlands 3

• The Crew 2
• Cyberpunk 2077

• Darksiders Genesis

• Destiny 2

• Destroy All Humans

• Doom (2016)
• Doom Eternal

• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
• Farming Simulator 19

• Final Fantasy XV
• Football Manager 2020
• Get Packed
• Gods & Monsters
• GRID

• Gylt (Possible Timed Exclusive)

• Just Dance 2020
• Kine

• Marvel’s Avengers
• Metro Exodus
• Mortal Kombat 11

• NBA 2K20
• Orcs Must Die 3 (Timed Exclusive)

• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• Rage 2
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Samurai Shodown

• SUPERHOT

• The Elder Scrolls Online

• Thumper
• Tomb Raider Definitive Edition
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
• Trials Rising
• The Crew 2
• Watch Dogs Legion

• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Windjammers 2

Other Important Things to Know About Stadia and More videos

Stadia will be implementing features such as “Crowd Play” announced during this year’s GDC, the feature will enable a viewer of a Livestream to request participation in a game. However, the feature is slated to debut at a later time and not when Stadia actually launches in November.

Google claimed Stadia can handle almost anything a Game can throw at it including large multiplayer games.

The company address concerns surrounding latency and lag which could be a dealbreaker when streaming games. But if the first Stadia test run is anything to go by, Google seems to have figured out how to fully mitigate such issues and gamers should enjoy uninterrupted sessions while gaming on Stadia.

Across the US, there are concerns that ISPs might throttle internet connectivity for those constantly using Stadia which the company said it has ironed out an agreement of some sort with most ISPs to make the Stadia experience worthwhile.

Compatibility With Daydream or Other VR Headsets

On this particular subject, we can only hope that Google will eventually support its Daydream VR headset and other variants for an immersive gaming experience.

What Devices Will be Supported at Launch

So as Google indicated, last year’s flagship Pixels including the mid-range offerings like the Pixel 3, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3aXL, Pixel 3XL, as well as this year’s Pixels will all be supported at launch.

In Conclusion

Stadia stands to revolutionize gaming as many analysts have predicted. With most industries — including gaming — slowly embraces streaming services, Google is making sure it is ahead of the pack but with large chunks of diehard gamers still preferring conventional -mostly localize gaming over streaming, Google Stadia faces an uphill challenge in its bid to become a successful product.

And with the recent developments concerning missing features indicates a fully loaded Stadia experience is going to be a gradual process. Let’s hope everyone waiting for Stadia is patient enough to be part of that process