News Google Stadia at 4K Could Use 1TB of Data in 65 Hours, Report Says

[AndrewFreedman]

If you do the math, streaming games on Google's Stadia can use a lot of data very quickly.

Google Stadia at 4K Could Use 1TB of Data in 65 Hours, Report Says : Read more

 

[derekullo]

Maybe if Google slid a little money under the table to popular ISPs to not count Stadia bandwidth against data caps ...

 

[Finstar]

Wait... data caps are still a thing?

 

[derekullo]

Cox limits me to 1 terabyte a month on my gigabit plan.

They do have an unlimited plan for $50 a month more.

I average 500-800 gigabytes a month so no complaints.

My 9 terabyte Crashplan backup is about 97% complete so I expect the data usage to go down significantly.

 

[AnimeMania]

Does anybody know if you own the Google Stadia device or just rent it?

 

[TJ Hooker]

Does anybody know if you own the Google Stadia device or just rent it?

The hardware running the games lives in the google cloud. You just stream to your local device(s), which can pretty much anything that can run google chrome AFAIK.

 

[Finstar]

Cox limits me to 1 terabyte a month on my gigabit plan.

They do have an unlimited plan for $50 a month more.

I average 500-800 gigabytes a month so no complaints.

My 9 terabyte Crashplan backup is about 97% complete so I expect the data usage to go down significantly.

None of my local ISPs even sell limited plans.
You can literally get an unlimited plan for 3.90€/month here, the speed will be just 128kb/s though.
I myself have an unlimited 150mb/s 4G wireless plan that i'm paying 25€/month for. No fiber connection here sadly since i kinda live in the middle of nowhere.
For 45€/month you'll get an unlimited 1000mb/s 5G plan.

 

[hotaru251]

Wait... data caps are still a thing?

Comcast has a 1TB cap.
ATT afaik doesnt, but they also have sh*t speed i doubt 24/7 could even HIT 1tb in a month.

 

[AnimeMania]

The hardware running the games lives in the google cloud. You just stream to your local device(s), which can pretty much anything that can run google chrome AFAIK.

So that controller looking thing in all the pictures is not part of the service. They are idiots for not forcing people to buy/rent that controller in order to use the service.

 

[TJ Hooker]

So that controller looking thing in all the pictures is not part of the service. They are idiots for not forcing people to buy/rent that controller in order to use the service.

Oops, my bad, yeah I think you need to buy the official Stadia controller. Looks like you need a chromecast ultra as well.

Edit: OK, I don't know what I'm talking about. Apparently to play on Chrome/mobile you don't need any additional hardware (can use your own controller) but to play on TV you need chromecast ultra + stadia controller. But what if your TV has built in chromecast? And I assume could just connect your PC/laptop running Chrome to your TV if you want?

"Do I need to use your Controller? (Stadia Controller)
No, you can use many popular HID compliant controllers when playing via USB cable on Chrome or mobile. To play on your TV you will need to use the Stadia Controller and Google Chromecast Ultra."
https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9338946?hl=en

 

[cryoburner]

So that controller looking thing in all the pictures is not part of the service. They are idiots for not forcing people to buy/rent that controller in order to use the service.

How would that help them in any way? It would just increase the cost of entry and make people less likely to try the service. You still need to pay for games, and that's where they intend to make their money.

As for the massive bandwidth requirements, yeah, that's pretty much a given for this type of service. If someone averaged around 2 hours of gaming a day, they could easily burn through a terabyte of data within a month. The bitrate at 60 frames per second is going to be quite high as far as streaming video goes. And even with that relatively high bitrate, the video quality is still not going to come close to that of a game rendered locally at the same resolution. 4K on this service is likely to look more like upscaled 1080p at just 35mbps, and 1080p will likely look more like upscaled 720p. This is lossy compression performed in real-time at a limited bitrate, so it's not going to look great. And of course, people in most areas are likely to experience significant input latency, which will probably be more of a deal-breaker.

 

[AnimeMania]

So that controller looking thing in all the pictures is not part of the service. They are idiots for not forcing people to buy/rent that controller in order to use the service.

How would that help them in any way? It would just increase the cost of entry and make people less likely to try the service. You still need to pay for games, and that's where they intend to make their money.

People are always breaking the controllers, a steady source of revenue. When you set the controls of the game to a joystick controller, set the default buttons to your Google Stadia controller, force people to remap or changes some buttons if they use a different controller. Add easy to access dedicated buttons on your Google Stadia controller that access special features on the Google Stadia that are harder to reach using other controllers. Make people's lives easier by just owning the Google Stadia controller. That's how you play the game.

 

[TJ Hooker]

People are always breaking the controllers, a steady source of revenue.

Stadia as a whole is a subscription service, and therefore already a steady source of revenue. I imagine that's where they're expecting to make their money, not hardware sales.

 

[klyze]

Im baffled by the fact ppl still think streaming its even a decent gaming experience.

This has so many other major problems that data caps are insignificant in comparison.

 

[Finstar]

Im baffled by the fact ppl still think streaming its even a decent gaming experience.

This has so many other major problems that data caps are insignificant in comparison.

^This. You'd need a high speed fiber connection to even have a decent experience, and the people who can afford that can usually also afford a high end gaming system anyways. People like me who are forced to use wireless connection due to their location would have to enjoy a nice 50-70ms ping.

 

[bit_user]

If you do the math, streaming games on Google's Stadia can use a lot of data very quickly.

This is pretty naive (or just click-bait). They're assuming that your data rate stays pegged at the Google-recommended level. That's surely not true. Someone needs to tell these guys about VBR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_bitrate

 

[bit_user]

Im baffled by the fact ppl still think streaming its even a decent gaming experience.

This has so many other major problems that data caps are insignificant in comparison.

I talked to someone who's used it, and he said you can't tell it's not local. Of course, it will depend on location and network congestion. As long as they don't plan to deploy it everywhere, they can probably deliver a pretty good experience.

 

[Phaaze88]

Interesting concept, but I see more cons than pros, at the moment.
Where I live, AT&T has pretty much monopolized the area(countryside). A few months back, they upgraded my service to an unlimited data plan, but I have my doubts.
I'm using the 'fastest' plan they have available in the area. I guess the speed is ok, considering where I live, but what they're charging per month for it is absurd.
~$70 a month for just 18Mbps...
I do agree that something needs to change with the ISPs, or many won't be able to use/afford Stadia, especially since most gamers are on a tight budget anyways.