Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
The Stadia has not had a very good launch. Between a pretty limited set of day one titles and various technical issues including visuals, performance, and connectivity, Google’s video game streaming platform is getting hammered left and right by players. When it comes to the visuals in particular, the outcry has been particularly heavy. Where previous to launch Google stated that games would play at 4K resolution in at 60 frames-per-second in its reported specs, the company has about-faced to say that it may be more up to game developers to deliver on that promise than the Stadia itself.
Google released a statement answering Stadia game performance issues on November 25, 2019, first reported in an article on Eurogamer. In the statement, Google answered specifically to the issue of many games on Stadia not playing at high-end settings the way that Google Vice President, GM, and Stadia chief Phil Harrison had promised they would. Many players have taken issue with the fact that instead of playing at true 4K 60FPS, there are titles like Destiny 2 that are instead rendered at a lower video quality and then upscaled.
To this, Google answered that while the Stadia is entirely capable of the visual performance that Harrison promised, it will seemingly be more up to developers of Stadia titles than Stadia devs themselves to make those performance levels a reality.
“Stadia streams at 4K and 60 FPS,” Google wrote. “And that includes all aspects of our graphics pipeline from game to screen: GPU, encoder and Chromecast Ultra all outputting at 4k to 4k TVs, with the appropriate internet connection. Developers making Stadia games work hard to deliver the best streaming experience for every game. Like you see on all platforms, this includes a variety of techniques to achieve the best overall quality. We give developers the freedom of how to achieve the best image quality and framerate on Stadia and we are impressed with what they have been able to achieve for day one.
"We expect that many developers can, and in most cases will, continue to improve their games on Stadia. And because Stadia lives in our data centers, developers are able to innovate quickly while delivering even better experiences directly to you without the need for game patches or downloads."
Not only does the above statement seem to fly in the face of what was arguably prematurely promised by Harrison, but it would seem that the official Google stance on the Stadia’s performance issues is that the “freedom,” and by extension responsibility of game performance, ultimately lies entirely with developers creating for the platform. Where much of that is certainly true (a game developer certainly decides what their final product will look like), it also seems to speak to a certain lack of quality control or awareness on the part of Google in its launch titles, which isn’t doing the Stadia any favors.
Early adopters always take the risk on new technology, and it would appear they’re in for a rough time in the early runnings of Stadia, but it’s certainly not an unredeemable concept. Hopefully, with criticism lighting a fire underneath Google, it will ultimately lead to improvements on this and other game streaming platforms.
[Featured Image by Computer Base]