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JWeinCom on 29 October 2019
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Darwinianevolution said:
JWeinCom said:
What exactly is the investment required for a streaming service like that? It seems to me (who is admittedly uneducated on this matter) that the costs would be a drop in the bucket for a company like google. They presumably already have a lot of the infrastructure, and there is no actual hardware beyond the controllers to manufacture. I'm guessing they could pretty easily survive a slow take off. If anything, I would say this is a soft launch for stadia. It's hard to market it when so many people already have a PS4 or XBox One and both systems are only 130 dollars more expensive than the stadia controller alone (although it works with other controllers I think). The real push for it will come when the next next gen consoles are launched. Suddenly when playing next gen games costs at least 400 dollars, the stadia becomes a way more attractive option.

How so? Most people who invest a lot in videogames would rather get updated pieces of hardware, either console or PC, just because they want to play without risks of poor streaming performance, and they would be much better informed of the risks of this kind of service (not to mention having access to other gaming streaming-like services). People who don't really care about videogames won't invest heavily in Stadia either because you still have to buy your games either way, so they would either keep themselves to outdated hardware and/or just straight FTP mobile games. Stadia is aiming for an almost non-existant crowd.

 Take myself for instance.  Would I rather get a new piece of hardware?  Yeah sure.  But I just started law school, and discretionary money is incredibly limited.  If there are next-gen exclusives that I'd want to play, I'm far more likely to buy it on Stadia.  The money is way more important to me than potential quality issues. I'm sure I'm not the only one with financial concerns that would make buying a new system an issue.

Another obvious market is those between 9 and 18 who are not working.  Next gen hits and there are some exclusives you want to play.  Convincing your parents to buy you a new system and a new game for 500+ dollars is going to be a lot harder than convincing them to buy a new game for 60 and potentially a controller for 70.

There are a lot of people who like games but for whom 4-500 dollars in their pocket will be more important than potential quality issues.  If you can't think of any people like that, then the problem is with your imagination.