Google’s Stadia Game Service WIll Not Support Downloads

Google had recently announced its new game streaming service called Stadia. This is the full version of Project Stream which launched last year and allowed gamers to stream games through their Chrome browser, and now during an interview with GameSpot, Google has revealed some additional information about Stadia.

This information is related to downloads, where some might be wondering if games could be downloaded for offline play, similar to how streaming services like Netflix and Apple Music support offline watching and listening. Unfortunately according to Google VP Phil Harrison, it will not be possible. “It would be a compromise of our vision if we were to do that.”

Harrison claims that it would be technically impossible to do so and we get it. Game streaming while similar to music and video streaming, is a bit more complex because it involves computation that takes place on remote servers. Allowing a game to run offline kind of defeats that point in which gamers would be better off just downloading the game on their computers in the first place.

Google has yet to confirm the pricing of Stadia and according to Harrison, Google already has one in mind but aren’t ready to talk about it yet. The company had also previously confirmed that Stadia will require gamers to have an internet connection of at least 25Mbps in order to stream 1080p games at 60fps, or 30Mbps if they want to be able to stream 4K at 60fps.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming, General
Tags: Google, Stadia