Google's Stadia

[Sticky 267]

Saw this on all the various tech blog today, and of course thought immediately thought of our favourite flightsims.  I see that Google sent the development guides to 100 studios....think any of them could be LM or LR?  Seems to me there is a sizable market for new users who don't know or want to simulate VNAV approaches, but just want to fly around for fun.  If there is some sort of "port" for standard Windows type games, I can see a huge new market for cross platform and even cell phone screens without the limitations of Android/IOS.

Think we'll see P3D on a linux machine running through a browser in our lifetime?

[WarpD 824]

Interesting... licensing for many software programs actually don't allow what they're doing.  Will be interesting to see if they get licenses or sued or both.

[G-RFRY 1,712]

Some developers may be interested as it`s intended for a payed for streaming service you don`t buy the game or sim you steam it, and just like SKY in the UK you will pay extra for some on a monthly basis. 

[Paraffin 2,197]

I've only taken a quick look, so take this with a grain of salt, but I don't see this platform being good for flight sims that depend on a huge ecosystem of add-ons to be successful. 

Look at X-Plane and Steam for example. Steam sells a version of X-Plane, but the add-ons available on Steam are nothing like we can find from other sources. Like console games, this is designed for entertainment software in a more closed ecosystem. The latest Battle Royale game, that kind of thing.

Even outside the flight sim world, I don't think it will find much success with gamers who enjoy a huge number of user-made mods like XCOM or the Bethesda games (Skyrim, Fallout), unless they can find a way to support user-made mods.

It's also going to require a REALLY fast connection, and with REALLY low latency if you're playing a multiplayer shooter.

[G-RFRY 1,712]

Yes but like steam it puts a developers product out to users who would not normally go looking for a niche product, flights sims are not mainstream and FSX:SE sold close to a million copies on steam, now yes they may have left or moved on but it puts sims in the market that are not available in normal games outlets. And there are some in the industry who think the future will be renting or leasing software or games and not owning them and the developer retains full ownership.   

[G-RFRY 1,712]

Apple now entering this market online gaming and streaming service, and it`s rumoured Microsoft will as well as having a game console.  

[Guest]

It's an interesting development. Mods/addons/etc. may indeed become a problem but it has various advantages like no need for disk space so bring on those terrabytes of TrueEarth! You only need a modest PC that can stream well and with it you might be able to play P3D or XP (if they will ever work with Stadia) butter smooth! Better than on any PC you will be able to buy yourself! And if you are into long hauls you can proceed your flight on your smartphone during shopping! No need for installing, updating, etc. But well, yes, addons may become a problem... 

I am curious though how much this will cost.

[Paraffin 2,197]

The other problem in addition to the add-on problem, is how many people really want to fly a plane with a gamepad as your only flight controls?

Maybe eventually some kind of support for dedicated flight controllers might be hacked into the system, but it's going to be gamepad only at the startup.

[G-RFRY 1,712]

When you think about the online flying, what if you only have to purchase the aircraft and you get a fully optimised world to fly in, one thinks of Google Earth with auto gen and sky textures, they already have the world mapped.