It works, but only for early adopters

Hey Google, here’s some free marketing advice: Stadia is an early access product.

The fact that I’m dispensing this advice in a review is proof that mistakes have already been made. The streaming service that Google’s been pitching since March — think Netflix, but for games — is meant to go toe-to-toe with the PlayStations and Xboxes of the world, but on the eve of its Nov. 19 launch, it’s simply not ready.

That’s fine! Early access isn’t a dirty idea. It’s a descriptive term that, in just two words, tells consumers everything they need to know: this product isn’t quite finished, but it’s good enough to be something you can purchase as an early adopter. Even at launch, Stadia does the key thing it needs to do: it works.

The tech

Streaming games from a data center to the internet-connected screen of your choosing isn’t some new-fangled idea. The last big streaming games push happened about 10 years ago, during the era of OnLive. That platform failed largely because the internet bandwidth wasn’t quite there yet. That’s still the case in some parts of the modern world. For people who can’t rely on a minimum broadband download speed of 10 Mbps at least (25+ is preferred), Stadia is a definite skip.

I live in a place where Gigabit cable internet is available in my home, with no data caps. The local Starbucks offers a WiFi download speed of roughly 35 Mbps. Even a nearby Shop-Rite gets up to around 12 or 13 Mbps on its public WiFi.

I tried Stadia in all of those places and had no issues whatsoever. Playing Destiny 2 on a Chromecast Ultra connected to my home WiFi isn’t so impressive when a PS4 and Xbox One are sitting right next to the TV, but playing it while I’m sipping tea at Starbucks? Or sitting in an idling car outside the grocery store?

It worked flawlessly in both of those situations, and every other public WiFi instance I could find – none of which, it’s worth noting, had speeds below Google’s recommended minimum of 10 Mbps (confirmed by a speed test app). I’m not saying people need or want to play Destiny 2 (or any other TV-friendly game) on the go, but that’s part of the Stadia pitch: take your gaming with you.

It won’t work on cellular data, at least for now. The Stadia app flat-out doesn’t let you start a game if you’re not on WiFi. Most industry types expect 5G to be the game-changer in that regard, but even then, data is going to be a concern. In the space of a week, I chomped through around 20GB of data just from streaming games to a Pixel 3a XL. I spent more time playing on my TV, but Stadia isn’t looking like a great option for people who live under the yoke of home broadband data caps.

Still, the underlying technology that powers Stadia works, and it’s the service’s chief selling point. You don’t need a $400 console to play things. Once Stadia Base launches in 2020, you won’t even need the $130 “Premiere Edition” package – containing a Chromecast Ultra, a Stadia controller, and three months of subscription access. You’ll just need to buy the game you want. 

I went in with plenty of doubts, but purely from a performance standpoint I’m super impressed with Stadia. We still have to see how it holds up once more people start signing on post-release. I’ll have more to say on that in a couple weeks.

The accessories

There’s not much to Stadia’s accessories at this point. At launch, it’s just the controller, which looks like an Xbox controller but with the Sony DualShock’s symmetrical thumbsticks. It’s a standard modern gaming controller with triggers and bumpers, clickable sticks, a directional pad, a “Stadia” main menu/power button, and A/B/X/Y buttons.

You also get dedicated buttons for capturing screenshots and summoning Google Assistant, though the latter feature won’t be live until sometime after launch. The two buttons are situated a bit below the Start/Select buttons (or whatever Google calls them), and more toward the center of the controller.

It’s not great positioning. I frequently hit both of those buttons by accident when I was reaching for the Start or Select button. The two pairs of buttons are placed fairly close together and I found that I’d hit the wrong one roughly half the time. It’s otherwise a perfectly comfortable controller, but those extra buttons are going to take some getting used to.

The piece of gear I’m most impressed with won’t even be available for purchase on Nov. 19, but will hopefully arrive soon after. Stadia’s inventive take on a smartphone mount positions your device on a fixed arm that sits in front of the controller. That might be a problem for people who prefer being able to see the buttons they’re pressing at all times, but it was great for me.

So many controller mounts use swivel arms for easier storage, but those generally aren’t great for anything other than a sitting position. With Stadia’s mount, I could easily play while lying in bed or reclining on the couch. The claw that holds your phone in place forms a tight fit and the plastic clip keeps the charging and headphone ports clear on your controller. Google plans to release the mount sometime after launch, but there’s no price or date confirmed just yet. Hopefully we find out more soon, as it’s a well-designed piece of plastic.

The apps and software

The Stadia smartphone app, on the other hand, needs a little work. My big gripe is it’s only usable in portrait mode. That seems like a pretty big oversight for an app that’s going to be used primarily when the phone is attached to a mount that keeps it in a landscape mode position. You can always just flip the phone-mounted controller around to engage with the app, but it’s an annoying inconvenience.

The rest of the app is functional enough, though pairing a controller gets a little funky. That’s because the app doesn’t make a crucial missing feature clear: as of launch, you can’t wirelessly link the controller to a smartphone.

Instead, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-C cable, as well as a Pixel 2 or later, or a Chrome OS tablet. Other devices will eventually be supported, but there’s no timeline for when that will happen. Google doesn’t include that cable in the Premiere or Founders Edition box – hopefully the mount will ship with the same 6-inch cord we were provided with for this review. There is a plan to eventually let the Stadia controller connect wirelessly to your smartphone, but like so many other features it’s not an option at launch.

The Chromecast setup process is also a little murky if you’re not familiar with how that line of Google products works. Unlike, say, a Roku or Nvidia Shield, you’re not downloading software from an app store accessible on the device. Instead, you’re setting everything up from your smartphone’s Stadia app, which is available for Android and iOS. 

At launch, Stadia is missing its killer app.

Using the app, you pair your phone with the Chromecast Ultra – only the ones packed into a Premiere Edition (or the sold out Founders Edition) will work at launch – and then set up the controller by entering a randomly generated button combination that appears on the TV screen. That’s it. You need to pair the controller anytime you turn it on, but the button combo is a simple, quick process that immediately opens into your games library (so long as the controller isn’t wired to a smartphone at the time).

The Chromecast user interface is simple and straightforward. All purchases need to be made in the app or via Stadia’s browser interface. You’re forced to use the Stadia controller with your phone or Chromecast, but any controller (or keyboard/mouse combo) will do on PC. The only odd issue is there’s no obvious way to exit a Stadia game on PC; I had to alt-tab to my desktop and close it from the task bar.

The games themselves run fine, even (at home) with other video streams running on different screens at the same time. I tried a bunch: Destiny 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Kine, and GYLT. The latter two are Stadia exclusives for the time being. Kine is a delightfully jazzy little puzzle game and GYLT is a stealthy, spooky puzzle game. They’re both great! But neither makes a case for Stadia as a must-own platform the way Halo: Combat Evolved did for Xbox back in 2001. At launch, Stadia is missing its killer app.

I do want to focus on Destiny 2 for a moment, because I think it single-handedly highlights both the key positives and key negatives of a platform like Stadia. Destiny is like a first-person shooter World of Warcraft. There are big group activities and high-level challenges, but there are also daily housekeeping things you can do. It’s as much a hobby as it is a game. 

Stadia is a cool platform for a game like Destiny because you can do the half-assed daily stuff in bed, on the toilet, or really anywhere other than in front of a TV. Then, when it’s time to raid or play with friends in some other way, you’ve still got that TV option.

The other side of that, though, is without an active community playing online your options are very limited. This was obviously highlighted to an extreme degree during the review period, when virtually no one at all was playing. But it’s a good reminder of how important community is in a game like Destiny, and what can happen to that experience if people aren’t around. Stadia uses its own social features and friends lists, so Destiny 2 (and any online game like it) will live or die on the strength of that community.

The service and features

This is going to be a very short section, mostly because I want to focus this review on what Stadia is right now versus what Google wants it to look like eventually, over time. 

At launch, you’ll have basic social features like friends list, parties, and voice chat. I wasn’t able to test any of this firsthand because of the pre-launch limitations, but I’ll follow up on that when I come back in a week or two with post-launch impressions. The features are there in the app, though, and it looks like they’re all working.

The app is also where you go – it’s the only place, in fact – to access screenshots you’ve captured on your Chromecast or PC (no screenshot capture supported on mobile at this point). Just so you know.

The heart of Stadia’s Nov. 19 launch is Stadia Pro, the subscription side of the service that carries a $9.99 monthly fee. In exchange, you get unfettered access to a growing library of free-to-subscribers games (it’s Destiny 2 and Samurai Shodown at launch). You also get 4K streaming with HDR support (not available on PC at launch) and discounts on any games that aren’t included in the Pro subscription. I’m not clear on what the discounts amount to yet, as it’s not reflected in the pre-release store.

It’s tough to compare the Pro subscription to Stadia Base, as the “free” side of the service (you’ll still need to buy games a la carte) doesn’t go live until 2020. But Stadia Base caps your streaming quality at 1080p – which honestly doesn’t sound so terrible. Both Pro and Base promise streaming at 60 frames per second, and I’d argue that’s a bigger deal for gaming (and a distinct edge over consoles in certain games). The subscription option will presumably look more attractive over time as new games are added to the library.

The pitch and takeaway

Where does all of this leave us? Stadia isn’t exactly release-ready in its present form, but it presents an interesting proposition as an early access offering. It’s not uncommon in tech for early adopters to pay more for fewer features, and that’s exactly what we’re dealing with here. At launch, Stadia is very, very clearly unfinished.

But! It works, and it’s a markedly better and more flexible game streaming experience than any I’ve encountered before (a list that includes PS Now, xCloud, and GeForce Now). It’s definitely not the answer for everyone, but Stadia pulls off the most important thing it can at launch: it makes a case for existing.

That said, so many of the supporting elements and slightly-more-than-basic infrastructure things are incomplete that this launch has a rushed feeling. That may well be what’s happening, with Microsoft planning to add streaming to Game Pass subscriptions in 2020 (and Sony already there with PS Now). Google is likely feeling some pressure to be the first one going big on streaming, since Stadia depends on it entirely.

The calculation may be: better to accept a rocky launch and iron out the kinks in the early months, in preparation for a 2020 fall season that is likely to see major console launches from Microsoft and Sony. Stadia isn’t the most appealing thing right in this moment if you’ve got years of investment in the current generation of hardware. But in 2020 and 2021, when a bunch of hot, new games will also carry the requirement of a new console purchase, Stadia’s “you just need to buy the game and that’s it” pitch may be what sells people on it over the competition.

Whether you like it or not, Google is now officially here to play in the world of mainstream gaming. Stadia is an uneven proposition at launch, but one with a ton of promise. There’s no small amount of risk in jumping aboard a service that may be very quickly outpaced by whatever the competition has in store. But if there’s any company with the resources and infrastructure to tilt the balance and challenge established giants like Microsoft and Sony, it’s Google.