The hype around Google Stadia is real. Some publishers and developers actually mentioned it at E3 and its catalog of games grows every week. Stadia sure looks like it has a lot of potential.
For $69, you get a controller and then you start streaming games at 4K and 60FPS for $10 a month. It's about to be a game changer - the already massive gaming industry will grow bigger and better, but of course, it all comes with a price.
The cost of Google Stadia may be a lot more than you think.
Perhaps the biggest challenge with Google Stadia is its all-online presence. It's easy to dismiss speed and latency issues as occasional problems, but stats don't lie. A recent survey shows that 52 percent of gamers who quit playing online multiplayer games do so because of high latency issues (lag).
For awful connections, Google Stadia actually has systems in place. Part of it is scaling down the resolution if your connection suddenly hits lag, but Stadia can't fix people's home networking problems. The solution to that is to actually upgrade your router and modem, which we all know could cost a lot.
A decent router will upgrade your speed, keep the ping down, and give you a lot of overhead to reduce buffer issues and lag spikes. Then again, these don't come cheap.
Additionally, Google Stadia doesn't work out of the box on everything. Unfortunately, you need a Google Chromecast if you want to access it on your TV. More specifically, it only seems to work on a Chromecast Ultra.
If you have a regular Chromecasts, you'll have to upgrade. If you don't have one, then you'll have to shell out at least $70 to have one.
There's more: Stadia controllers don't have a phone holder, so you'll definitely need to buy a clip if you to play on your phone. You will also need a stand for your tablet if you use one. A gaming headset is also essential, so if you don't already own one, you'll have to get one too.
Google Stadia is giving us a lot of excitement and something to look forward to this year. However, these little extras increase the price of a setup by quite a bit. If you're not careful, you may end up buying the most expensive platform there is. As for network speeds, these costs add up each month, meaning you don't actually get to spend just $10.
So, what do you think? Are the Google Stadia worth it?
