- Hey guys, this is Austin!
And this is the Google Stadia Founder's Edition.
So, Google were awesome enough to sponsor this video,
so I can take a look at what should be
the best cloud gaming service yet.
So at first I thought that they had custom-printed the box,
but actually I just think someone wrote my name on it
and they just have really, really good handwriting.
Like, I gotta respect that.
So there are a bunch of different versions of Stadia,
but this is the brand-new Founder's Edition,
which I believe is sold out right now.
But inside, we get pretty much everything
we need to get up and running
and starting with the controller itself.
Now even though the Founder's Edition is sold out,
you can still buy the Premier Edition,
which is pretty much the same
but with a white controller and no Buddy Pass.
And you can also buy controllers
outside of the bundle for $69 each,
and they come in white, black,
and a greenish color called "Wasabi."
So it's kind of like a mix between like
an X-box and like a PS4 controller.
What I like is the actual feel in the hand.
Like, the grip are a little bit longer
than on a standard controller.
But, at least for my hands, that fits pretty well.
Sticks feel good.
Nice little bit of clickiness.
I feel like I'd like a little bit more tension
on the triggers.
But generally speaking, it actually feels like
a pretty premium controller.
Then you might be wondering why exactly
I'm unboxing a controller as well as a Chromecast Ultra.
I mean, this doesn't look like a game console.
However, through the power of cloud gaming,
it actually can be.
So with Google Stadia, essentially the game itself
is actually running on a server,
who knows how many miles away,
and is being streamed to your device.
But also it'll work on the Chrome browser on your computer,
it'll work on some phones and tablets and stuff.
Essentially, pretty much as long as you have
a good internet connection,
theoretically you should be able to play games
pretty much anywhere you are.
This is a little side note,
but you should definitely use the power adapter
that comes in the box.
So while some Chromecasts, like the normal versions,
you can power off of the USB port from your TV,
the difference here is that this power adapter
has an ethernet jack.
And when it comes to cloud gaming,
while you can use WiFi,
and at the very least you should be using
five gigahertz WiFi.
But realistically, if you can plug it into ethernet,
you're gonna get a smoother, better experience.
Now I've used a lot of cloud gaming services over the years.
And most of the early ones were barely usable.
These days there are a couple which have gotten better.
But none of them have the full might of Google behind it.
So setup process should be pretty straightforward,
especially if you already have a Chromecast.
So to start off with, I'm using a Pixel 4,
because this is one of the phones
which is supported to stream.
I need to just unlock my invite code with Stadia,
which I have somewhere.
I now have the name "Austin" on Stadia.
So on my phone with Stadia Pro
I've been able to unlock a couple of games
that are included, including "Destiny"
as well as "Samurai Showdown."
So the next step is to get my Chromecast up,
as well as the controller.
Oh excellent, okay.
"Do you want to set up your Stadia controller?"
Sweet!
So it already sees that I have a controller.
Yes, I would love to do that.
So now I'm going to connect the controller to the WiFi.
The idea is that this controller,
as opposed to being directly connected to the device,
can be connected to my WiFi,
which means that say I'm playing on the Chromecast
and I want to switch over to say, playing on my phone.
I don't have to switch devices,
because this isn't connected to my actual phone
or at my actual Chromecast.
It's connected to the cloud which means
that everything should just work.
Theoretically at least.
Let's see if it actually does.
All right.
So if I press Left, X Y, all right wait.
Uh-hum.
If I can press Left, X, X, B,
like it says on the screen, I'll be fine.
(laughs)
It looked like a Y, okay?
It looked like a Y.
Yes, okay, cool.
Sweet, okay.
So we're done with the phone for now,
until we're actually ready to play some games.
Now let's jump into my account and see what happens.
What is, what does Stadia's interface look like?
It looks like that!
Okay, cool!
So we have My Games,
which is just the two games that are included.
But if I want, I can also go to the mobile app
and I can actually download and buy more.
Oh yeah, so they have quite a few games.
So, they also have pretty decent discounts.
So if I want to play like "Mortal Kombat,"
it's $20 off.
30 bucks off "Assassin's Creed."
"Metro Exodus" for 20.
That's actually not bad.
So, coming next year there will be a Stadia Base version,
and that will have no monthly subscription
and you'll just buy the games as you want them.
Now, you are limited to 1080p streaming there.
However for a lot of people,
especially if you're playing like on your phone
or on computer or something,
1080p is probably going to be totally fine.
No install, which is nice,
because literally all it's doing right now
is booting up the game on a server somewhere
and then streaming it to me.
Going into this, my biggest question is absolutely,
what is the latency?
Now when you're playing on a server
that is hundreds of miles away potentially,
there's obviously going to be some kind of lag.
However, Stadia's actually pretty impressive.
So, as far as I can tell,
I mean this feels pretty similar to playing like
on a standard console.
Obviously, we have really good internet here.
That's definitely going to make things
a little bit biased.
But as far as I'm concerned,
in this sort of best case scenario,
it feels incredibly smooth.
Like, no dropped frames, no major sort of,
any issues with the picture quality.
And latency is not bad.
So, you're gonna want a minimum of 10 megabit internet
to have a solid 720p feed.
And if you want to go full 4K, like I'm playing right now,
you do wanna aim for at least 35 megabits.
Which is a lot, but it's also not totally insane.
Especially considering the quality, really.
I mean like,
I can get like up close with it
and yeah, I mean maybe here I can see
a little bit of compression,
but realistically it just looks like
I'm playing on a console.
This is really, really good.
And the picture quality I'm surprised with.
Now, I'm not sure if this is going
to necessarily match a high-end PC running at 4K.
Realistically, it's probably not quite
that same level of fidelity.
But, considering that we're playing a game
streaming over the internet, it is not bad.
I mean, this is running on Chromecast.
We don't have a giant, huge tower underneath the TV.
It's literally a Chromecast Ultra
and that's how we're playing "Destiny 2" right now.
So the next thing I'm going to try is playing Stadia
using a standard computer running Chrome.
So theoretically, it should be pretty straightforward.
You just need to go to stadia.google.com
and it should theoretically just work.
Yeah, so we see "Destiny."
The wireless function is coming soon.
And that is a little bit of a downside with Stadia,
in that there are a lot of cool features
that are coming, but they're not quite out yet.
So, let me plug this guy in.
Now there are some upsides to this.
So, if you are playing on PC,
you do get access to using other controllers,
you could use a mouse and keyboard,
you can plug in like an X-box controller or something.
But for right now, I'm going to plug
my Stadia controller in via USB.
My first impressions are pretty solid.
I do notice a little bit more latency.
I think the difference between being plugged in,
wired versus wireless, does make a difference.
Image quality is also not quite as good.
We're definitely streaming at 1080p as opposed to 4K.
All right, you know what?
I will say the controls feel a little bit squishy right now.
It's not bad.
It's certainly playable,
but this is not as smooth an experience as I would like.
It's subtle, and I think it's really only gonna
be noticeable if you do a lot of native gaming
on like a proper console or PC.
Like, it's not bad, but it's not quite as seamless
as it was using the Chromecast Ultra,
which does make sense.
I get why they sort of ship this as a bundle.
Now Stadia also work on the Pixel 2, 3, 3a, 4 right now,
as long as they're running Android 10
with more phones to come soon.
However, the way to get the controller to work
isn't necessarily the most seamless.
Okay.
You just have to plug it via USB.
Now to be fair, if you do wanna use another controller,
say like a PS4 or X-box controller,
you can connect them via Bluetooth.
But right now, I'm gonna play like this.
Huh, you know what?
This feels pretty much exactly the same
as playing on my laptop.
So obviously, you got a smaller screen,
which means that the image quality,
while it already looked decent before,
actually looks a little bit better now,
because you've got just such a small display to work with.
And the latency's pretty much exactly the same.
I'm pretty convinced that the difference
between the laptop and the Pixel versus the Chromecast,
is purely down to wired versus wireless.
This is not the way to play the game.
You should definitely use a Bluetooth controller
or ideally, fairly shortly,
when the Stadia controller works wirelessly,
it won't be an issue.
But this is goofy, I think some might say.
When you're thinking in a more mobile context,
Stadia's actually really interesting.
Now of course, mobile games are getting better and better,
but right now, absolutely nothing can touch
the graphics and the gameplay of
these full console and PC titles that Stadia provides.
Now is it perfect right now?
Absolutely not.
Not only do you have do deal with the cable
if you want to use the Stadia controller,
but it only supports WiFi right now,
so you can't use 4G or 5G,
which will hopefully make things much better.
But realistically what you're getting here
is an experience which, just like on the computer
and it's pretty similar to on the TV, feels good.
It feels snappy.
It's not 100% as smooth as playing like
on a high-end PC, but it's certainly playable.
And especially on a smaller screen,
it actually feels totally fine.
Oh oh, nope no, go away, go away, go away.
What is that?
I'm gonna say, that I am more impressed
with Google Stadia than I thought I'd be.
I've tried a lot of cloud gaming services
and there's no doubt that this is the best one yet.
Now it is certainly not perfect.
It's a 1.0 version and there are a lot of features
which they are working on.
But the most important thing here is the core gameplay
and the actual latency in the experience that you get.
And everything I've seen here seems to indicate
that they've got the fundamentals down.
Now, once they get the wireless controller working
across all of the devices,
once they get more device support,
I think it's going to be really impressive.
But as of right now, I see the potential,
and I think that's the main thing
that my, sort of, takeaway of Stadia is.
If you guys are interested,
you can definitely feel free to check out
the Stadia Premier bundle,
which is linked in the description.
So obviously, you don't need all this stuff.
Theoretically, you could just wait
for the Stadia Base to come out next year
and you'll be able to play everything for free,
assuming you buy the games.
You can play the subscription for free.
But if you want the full experience,
if you want the Chromecast Ultra,
if you want the controller,
this is definitely the way to get it.