Google Stadia: 10 Questions We Need Answering ASAP
8. What's The Barrier To Entry?
In the keynote, Stadia was shown to work instantly. After watching a YouTube video you can just hit play and dive right into a game... but how?
Surely you'd have to buy the game first, enter some details, etc. In which case, it could never be an instantaneous thing. Google wanted to wow audiences with the speed of going from watching to playing, but that just doesn't seem especially feasible.
And that also brings us to the confusion surrounding platforms beyond YouTube. It's entirely unclear where one would go to buy a game, or even resume the one they're already playing, beyond YouTube. It's really quite strange that Google didn't show the service working on anything besides YouTube, because that alone presents a barrier to entry for those who doesn't use the website everyday.
We assume there will be another location to buy games; perhaps Stadia even works with other platforms, but for now we have no idea, as Google forewent explanations in favour of a flashy presentation.