Google Stadia: 7 Reasons It's The Future Of Gaming (And 4 Reasons It's Not)

2. Latency Will Always Be An Issue

Google Stadia Connection
Inverse

As PS Now has proven, streaming video games is a precarious business. Even with a high-speed connection, a game as old as Sly Cooper will suffer latency issues which make it pale in comparison to the disc version. With that in mind, properly experiencing games that require quick responses like Street Fighter or Counter Strike seems impossible.

Google stressed that they've taken every single step to minimise latency, with the games being streamed via their databanks rather than through public broadband, limiting interference as much as possible. The responsiveness of the titles looked great on the show floor from a distance, but even those have been scrutinised frame by frame, and it's clear that lag is still present.

It's all well and good being able to stream the latest titles at a ridiculous resolution and a silky-smooth framerate, but if the actual experience of playing said games feels unresponsive or even a touch off compared to the console versions, then it's dead in the water.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.