This week Google announced Google Stadia. It's the company's game streaming platform that allows users to play high-quality, console-like games on any device they own that can run its Chrome browser. While the company's Stadia keynote at GDC 2019 showed off the likes of Doom Eternal and Assassin's Creed Odyssey running smoothly on stage across devices, hands-on impressions at the event were far from perfect no matter how compelling the idea of being able to play games at 4K on a smartphone, TV, or even a PC or Mac of your choosing anytime and anywhere.
Throw in steep Internet requirements, a rampant disregard for video game preservation, and the lack of any clear pricing or release date, makes Stadia seem like the Google Plus of gaming rather than the industry's Netflix moment it aspires to be.
During this episode of Transition, the Gadgets 360 gaming podcast, we discuss all these points in depth and compare what Google has on offer to Microsoft's Project xCloud, how Sony could react, as well as dig a little deeper into the history of game streaming pre-Google.
Furthermore, we touch upon hot-button issues that could spring up while using Google Stadia such as having your games linked to a Google account, the Stadia controller's voice assistant being possible invasion of privacy, and what could happen if its data centres refuse to cooperate when you want to play what you want when you want.
Finally, we speak about the games we've been playing this week. This includes the likes of Baba Is You, The Division 2, Caligula Effect, and more.
You can subscribe to Transition via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download this episode,or just listen to it by hitting the play button below. The music for this episode comes via Magnus Souleye Pålsson's album PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack for the game, VVVVVV.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.