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Google Stadia India Launch Slated for 2021

Google Stadia India Launch Slated for 2021

By Rishi Alwani | Updated: 3 April 2019 18:53 IST

Google is looking to launch its Stadia streaming service in India in two years

Highlights

The company plans to launch Stadia in two years
It's already in talks with local partners
Issues regarding FUP are yet to be worked out

Google is looking to launch its Stadia streaming service in India in two years. According to multiple people familiar with the matter, the Internet giant's foray into game streaming for India has already been discussed with possible local partners and is targeting a 2021 release window. At the moment, Google Stadia is currently slated for release in US, UK, Europe, and Canada this year. Other regions are yet to be confirmed. This could make Google Stadia the first game streaming service to launch in India.

"We've been told that Stadia should be out in two years," claims one content firm owner on the condition of anonymity. "Game publishers have expressed interest as well and would be in touch with us too."

That said, there is some degree of skepticism surrounding the company's plans. Particularly about the bandwidth consumption of Stadia.

"PS Now uses about 3GB per hour at 720p," says one ISP employee who did not want to be named. "At the moment there's no clear indication on how this would work in India with Google Stadia. Chances are you may use up a month's worth of FUP [fair usage policy, or data caps as they're known] with a single stream at 1080p or 4K. We haven't received information on this yet."

To get around this, Google may partner with ISPs directly to provide Stadia without any impact on end-user FUP with some industry insiders stating it was how subscription services for PC games from Zapak and Indiagames worked. Though in an era of net neutrality, this may not be possible, they speculate.

Plus, the revenue split for games on the service, and how much Google would pay developers per hour for markets like India where video games traditionally have a lower price could pose a challenge too.

"We have no information to share at this time as Stadia is not slated for launch in India just yet," a Google spokesperson said in reply to our request for comment.

With the likes of game streaming services like Hatch due for a beta test in India along with Microsoft's strategy to use Project xCloud to target non-console owners — of which, India has plenty, it appears that it's just a matter of when and not if Google Stadia gets an India launch.

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