Firstly, the service will roll out in November with a limited edition starting pack including a blue Stadia controller, Chromecast Ultra TV stick and a three-month Stadia Pro subscription. Through this subscription, players will be able to stream multiple games from an existing library and that too in 4K. Games that will not be included in the library will need to be bought separately. The subscription will cost £119 or $129.
Once the test run turns out to be successful, the subscription will cost £8.99 per month and the controllers will be available separately for £59, starting next year. In case a player decides to purchase individual games instead of a subscription, they will be able to stream in high definition but not in 4K.
Well-established studios such as EA Games, Rockstar, Sega, Ubisoft and a few others will have their games available on the platform. This means that players will be able to stream Final Fantasy XV, Destiny 2, Doom etc.
However, highly played games such as Fortnite and Overwatch will not be available for the time being as their respective Developer Studios haven’t given their nod to a partnership with the cloud gaming service.
Google Data Centers’ (scattered across the globe) servers will run the Stadia games and the stream will be shown on TV.
According to Google, players will be given around 10 teraflops of graphic processing. Even the combined graphic processing power of Xbox One and PS4 isn’t that much. Journalists will get their first looks at the service at E3 gaming show this month.
Google also added that a download speed of at least 35 Mbps and upload speed of 1 Mbps will be required to stream games in ultra-high definition 4K. For streaming in lower resolutions, a 10 Mbps speed will get the job done.
Google’s Vice-president Phil Harrison, who is also in charge of Stadia sat down for an interview recently and offered explanation on some of the FAQs concerning Stadia.
He said that in order to achieve low latency, the company has been trying to set up data centers as close to the population as possible and the technology being used would give users amazing quality and experience.
Also, the motive behind this service isn’t to go head to head with Gaming Giants like Nintendo and Sony but the main reason is to make gaming available to as much people as possible, mainly those who don’t prefer purchasing and using hardware. Moreover, the commitment to this business has been remarkable and considerable investments have been made to make Stadia a reality.
Harrison also addressed the company’s commitment to making all data centers run by matching green energy in the near future.
Featured photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
