There is much speculation surrounding Google Stadia regarding release, games, and performance. The head of Larian Studios believes that players cannot yet understand Google Stadia.
The founder and head of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, shared a bit about his major project Baldurs Gate 3 in an interview with GameSpot. He also discussed Google Stadia.
This is Swen Vincke: Swen Vincke is the head of Larian Studios and one of the leading minds behind Baldurs Gate 3. Baldurs Gate 3 is set to release for Google Stadia. When the game will exactly launch is still unknown.
Furthermore, he and his team are working extensively with Google Stadia, so he knows about Stadia.
“Stadia is accessible to everyone” – The advantages of Google Stadia will be visible soon
This is what the head of Larian Studios said: The founder and head of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, said in an interview with GameSpot Video Producer Dave Jewit:
“I don’t believe people currently understand the potential of Stadia. I don’t mean that economically; that’s my own opinion. Because they [people] haven’t seen it, haven’t felt it, but it is something special.”
Vincke admits that it is still difficult for players to grasp what Stadia can really do, as they haven’t seen it in action yet. However, it should truly be special and some features will be revealed in due time.
On the one hand, people are limited by their hardware, and with Google Stadia, all gamers have the same opportunities to play at ultra settings.
Google Stadia loads a lot of game data into the cloud. The player can then stream this data from the cloud to their screen. The advantage is that they are not limited by their hardware, as their own PC does not need to compute the game.
Google Stadia also uses PC hardware but can scale it based on demand.
And on the other hand, he adds: “We have always tried to develop games with fair, low requirements, and [Stadia] solves that problem.”
This is the problem for developers: Games must often be developed in a way that they can run on low settings, according to Vincke. Developers are always bound by the technology in the form of PC and console. However, Google Stadia would solve a significant problem for developers.
This is the advantage for developers: In the data center, multiple devices can be connected simultaneously, creating performance that a single device at home cannot achieve. The data center processes animations and graphics, which can be realized with the help of multiple connected systems in the cloud and can ultimately be streamed to a screen.
Thus, Vincke explains in another interview that developers can display graphics across multiple systems on one screen. Game developers are thus less restricted in game design and can create larger, more impressive worlds.
The performance of the PC or console no longer matters. And that is also the biggest advantage of Google Stadia compared to the hardware at home, as developers are no longer restricted. Load times of games would also no longer be limited by the installed hard drive.
The Football Manager 20 for example (via Techradar) takes advantage of the benefits of Google’s data centers. Unlike traditional PCs and consoles, progress advances faster via Google Stadia. The extensive datasets, including match results from various leagues, are calculated in parallel across multiple nodes in the cloud (simulating multiple computers).
For this reason, Google Stadia is, according to Vincke, much more interesting for developers than the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft:
“Our biggest problem: Who can join me?” – Stadia makes multiplayer easier
This is why Stadia is important for multiplayer: Vincke emphasizes the possibilities for multiplayer:
“If you have access from anywhere with something like Stadia, then the chance to continue the adventure together increases,” Vincke elaborates on the possibilities of multiplayer. Especially if a game offers many hundred hours of gameplay, it becomes all the more important that all players can join.
No one should be excluded due to poor hardware or long distances.
This is another advantage: A single PC or console struggles to display many players simultaneously without lags. This applies, for example, to battle royale games or MMOs. However, many computers simultaneously can handle the calculations. Vincke said in another interview with wccftech.com:
In the data centers, the devices are connected to each other […]. Something like: Put a few servers together and let them simulate physics that is not possible on local hardware.
Google Stadia thus provides much more power simultaneously. In battle royale or MMOs, much more players would be possible with Google Stadia than before.
Swen Vincke has high hopes for Google Stadia. What are your expectations for Stadia?
The head of Google Stadia has also spoken out and wanted to know the opinion of the users. What future features do you wish for:
