Morning!

hai

Has anyone tried the PS Now service where you stream the game instead of downloading it?

I have not

but it sucks

unless you're playing something that tolerates high input latency

like don't play rocket league, but go ahead and play JRPGs

well provided they have no action elements

I've palyed stadia

horrible

Yeah, I suspect you have to plan ahead and design your game for this.

rocket league could not work

or tekken

I'm sure people are playing them

and they are bad at them without really understanding why

Make Tekken a card game like Slay the Spire and it works.

I think it's a huge hazard in the game industry

people will grow up on this stuff and have no idea that they're having trouble

Tekken is not a card game

that would be some other game

I'll try the PS Now thing before our subscription ends here. It's the kind of service that's nice to help you discover games, but I suspect the way it's played is... not fun.

I suspect subscription based services like that will also decrease a lot the player's engagement and profitability.

Artists make no money from the streaming services...

They get some, but it's not a lot.

the amount they get seems very low to me

Yes, I meant "get enough money to live off of this"; some could be making enough, but you don't wake up on a sunny morning and decide you'll record songs and make a living out of publishing them on Google Play music. That's what I meant. And I suspect deals with Google/Stadia will be not so lucrative for game studios...

yeah

Stadia makes you buy the games though

so that might still work

but I think you're right about the other services

but I don't see people lining up to buy a game for a streaming service where if it shuts down you lose access

Ah, ok, yes; I thought you also had an option to subscribe to a catalogue and play anything that's offered there.

I don't think so. But I could be wrong :)

@Almo Steam?

Origin?

Stardock's Impulse?

If you're talking about single player, Steam games still work in offline mode

they can shutdown and you can still play

if games have online stuff required like steam matchmaking, that's an issue

Oh, yeah, but you'll have to have downloaded the game before it does.

Yes

but the service got off the ground before being wired into the hearts of games

stadia... well I don't see them getting off the ground

like... input latency AND I have to buy the game?

pretty dorky

Yes, I agree.

I wonder what is their target audience.

People even play mobile games. I don't see that as a deal breaker.

Also not having to wait 2 hours for the download to finish is pretty nice.

Maybe you can make a hybrid. Use streaming for demos and playing the game while it's still downloading.

I don't see what mobile games have to do with stadia's setup

Mobile games use shitty technology similar to input lag.

only if you're talking about joystick inputs on touch screens

most phones register touches within a frame at 60FPS

the first iPhone did; Apple hired a game industry guy to help them make sure it was gaming ready

So there's not input latency per se.

@nwp This is the reason behind my question. People do play mobile games. If you can instantly play the next Candy Crush (whatever is trendy these days), whether you play installed or streaming doesn't make a difference. But you will not be able to seduce the multiplayer Call of Duty (whatever is trendy these games) hardcore fans.

it's just that the usual implementation of a joystick control on a touch screen lacks precision

@nwp That's a paradigm shift for those who were there before. You're right about it. The platform is now used as a promotion platform, and they sell tickets for shows.

@nwp The market can force them into it. Like how the race to the bottom in mobile pretty much forced microtransactions on a lot of games. It's a similar issue on streaming.

if they can't make enough money they may just have to stop being artists, which reduces the artistic range available

fortunately, bandcamp is doing well so there are currently alternatives.

Yes, that's what is happening; there are alternative.

I've seen a conf by an indie game dev who said he did not like microtransactions for his games, so all his games were pay-to-buy-then-play.

If he's fine with that, sure!

I'm pretty sure some artists out there make albums just because they like the process and they never do any shows. It's fine too.

@Almo I suspect that even if you have a disc with your game on it, and you try to install it after some years, there is a chance that the CD-Key could not be validated correctly because the DRM server has been shut down.. :P

Like when you play an Assassin's creed game after 4 years, no multiplayer features are available..

I tried buy to play on mobile

even friends who knew I spent 6 months on cognizer were hesitant to pay

they'd get it then say I owed them a beer

NO you got a game you moron

My next game is gonna be $1

I know not a lot of people will get it, but whatever

Yeah, that indie dev produced match-three games on PC; I suspect it would be different on mobile.

DbD coming to Stadia.

We had some challenges with getting skill checks to work due to the latency :)

hahaha :p

FC6 is going to support Stadia too. The latency is a challenge, but it's already a big step up over other techwe've used for remote development through the COVID lockdown. I'm glad this didn't happen pre-Stadia!

IT works surprisingly well, but even under perfect network conditions the latency is too much for me.

but I'm super picky

Our 3Cs designers and directors do say it's impossible to properly evaluate game feel changes through it. Fortunately for my work in economy design it does what I need.

yeah I'd believe that

I tried DOOM on ps now streaming, and it kicked me out because of bad speed. 🤷