The new service is being delivered on Google’s globally connected network of data centres, freeing its players from the limitations of consoles and PC’s.
Users now have instant access to all their games on any type of screen including TV, laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone, available in resolutions of up 4K and 60 frames per second. Stadia has only been released in select countries including the US, Canada, the UK and much of Europe.
“To build Stadia, we’ve thought deeply about what it means to be a gamer and worked to converge two distinct worlds: people who play video games and people who love watching them. Stadia will lift restrictions on the games we create and play—and the communities who enjoy them,” said Google in a statement.
In addition to gamers having access to all their games at once, developers will have access to nearly unlimited resources to create all the games they want.
“It’s a powerful hardware stack combining server class GPU, CPU, memory and storage, and with the power of Google’s data centre infrastructure, Stadia can evolve as quickly as the imagination of game creators,” continued Google.
To date, Google has 19 global data centres across four continents, these include North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
At launch gamers have a total of 22 titles to choose from, with more games to be added by the end of the year. As all games go through technical testing, they available for users to play right away, with no download and no patch.
Earlier this year Google also announced that Stadia had joined the Playing for the Planet Alliance and will work closely with the UN to support various gaming-related sustainability initiatives. Also, as it is powered by Google Cloud, this means it will be 100% carbon neutral and work will be done to ensure that any hardware (controllers etc) is sustainable.
