Google Stadia could change the way we use our mobile devices for gaming
By Joe Robinson20 Mar 2019
It’s perhaps a testament to how the worlds of mobile gaming and traditional gaming are starting to converge that we find ourselves covering a second mainstream GDC 2019 announcement in a 24-hour period. Google have been teasing some kind of big gaming announcement for a few weeks now, and last night they revealed what they’ve been working on – Google Stadia.
The nuts and bolts is that Google want to use their tech – honed over decades of internet shenanigans – to power a cloud-streaming game platform. They’ve essentially declared war on traditional hardware formats; mainly consoles, but high-end PCs will come into the crosshairs as well. I think the thing that summed up their ‘intent’ for me was an analogy they used for describing how link sharing works.
You get sent a link, you click on it, the page loads quickly and seamlessly. They essentially want that to be true for games in general. YouTube videos will have game links on them now, or perhaps a friend or a streamer will share a game link via social media or chat. You click on it, and instantly you’re playing that game without loading, installing or buffering. They boast they’ll be able to do it at the highest quality as well (dependent on Wi-Fi infrastructure).
If you’re passionate about gaming and you’ve got some time to spare (maybe on a lunch break or later this evening), I would recommend giving the full stream a watch – it’s a pretty fascinating vision, at the very least:
If you just want a recap or highlights though, here’s the short version:
But what does this mean for mobile gaming?
It’s a complicated proposition – I think the question that Stadia poses is more to do with how we use our handheld devices for gaming, rather than ‘mobile gaming’ itself. For those of us lucky enough to possess the wireless infrastructure that ‘optimum’ Stadia will demand, it will be another attempt at engaging with a game streaming/cloud gaming platform, similar to what OnLive tried in the UK half a decade ago. Instead of jumping on to Meteorfall or Castles of Burgundy, you could instead fire up whatever AAA game is currently doing the rounds, and you wouldn’t need a console to do it. Further to that, if you’d been playing that game at home before you left your house, you could pick up exactly where you left off on your tablet or phone. Theoretically, you’d be playing with the exact same visual fidelity as well, with the only real difference being the interface.
But for the rest of us, the App stores and the games that end up there will remain our primary source of games on mobile. Android users I think have the most to be concerned about at the moment – It’s hard to judge the impact Stadia will have on the Google Play store. They’ll be some kind of integration for sure, but whether Google will try and phase it out, or encourage the devs there to use Stadia as an additional thing, only time will tell. Apple, being a self-contained infinity engine, will probably continue as normal and as long as phones with physical memory still exist I suspect there will always be a demand for mobile games as we know them currently – stored locally on the device, built to the specifications of existing physical hardware.
The real question is how will the app store game line-ups be affected: Will less devs make games for Google Play/Apple? Will the currently growing ‘console-games-on-mobile’ trend fall off with those companies switching to Stadia instead? How will this effect the currently popular business models on mobile. At the moment, there’s painfully little information as to how Stadia plans to monetise itself and provide revenue for developers. Is there a fundamental difference for developers and/or users between someone having Crashlands on their phone, or playing Crashlands via the cloud?
At the very least, we could be getting a snazzy new wireless controller out of this initiative. The Stadia controller was also announced during the showcase. It’s a Wi-Fi gamepad that’s apparently able to connect to any device. Whether it can be used for non-Stadia games we’re not sure – current reports indicate the controller hasn’t actually passed the FCC certification process yet, so a lot of its capabilities are still TBC.
The one thing we can say with confidence, however, is that we won’t have long to wait until we find out what all this means. Google Stadia plans to launch this year in 2019, and we’ll be keeping an eye on this as it develops. StadiaTactics confirmed.
Sired in an act of vampire terrorism, your existence ignites the war for Seattle’s blood trade. Enter uneasy alliances with the creatures who control the city and uncover the sprawling conspiracy which plunged Seattle into a bloody civil war between powerful vampire factions.
Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Delta Ring will begin receiving the latest 1904 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18356.2000.190311-1920). Read on for more about the new features, fixes and known issues in the latest 1904 system update.
DETAILS:
OS version released:19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18356.2000.190311-1920
We are aware of issues of No Audio heard from Non-Spatial Audio games when using Dolby Atmos for Home Theater with the LG SJ9 soundbar.
Game Pass Mobile App
Issue/Impact – After pushing a remote installation of a game from the Game Pass mobile app, customers will not see progress of the installation on in the mobile app and may not receive install notifications. The game will still successfully install if there is sufficient available space on the console.
Affected audience – must be in 1904 preview, must be a GP subscriber, must be using the GP mobile app, must be pushing game installations from the app.
Workarounds – None. A fix is coming in the next version of the mobile app in March. Customers interested in getting early access to the fix can download the Game Pass Beta app.
Home
We are aware that the clock/time is missing from home and the dashboard.
My Games and Apps
We are aware that the game such as “One Leaves” causes guide to crash on game exit. We are tracking a fix to the system.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
System
We are tracking that Home is failing to load/crashing with latest update.
Virtual Keyboard
On Screen Keyboard in Hebrew – We are aware that the onscreen keyboard in Hebrew the period or semi-colon no longer works. Workaround: A physical usb keyboard works.
On Screen Keyboard covers group chat window – We are aware that the onscreen keyboard in group chat covers that text entry window. Workaround: Touch typing is a skill.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-24-2019, 02:40 AM - Forum: Lounge
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This Week At Bungie – 3/21/2019
This week at Bungie, the Drifter keeps drifting.
We are now in our third week of Season of the Drifter and there’s a lot going on. All three tiers of the Reckoning are live. The Thorn quest is available for those who are brave enough to wield a dark weapon. Gambit Prime is on Legion’s Folly for the first time this week, and it will migrate to Emerald Coast next week.
If you’re looking for lore, Invitations of the Nine started last Friday, and it continues for many weeks to come. Complete the first invitation to discover the backstory of the Drifter and his ties to the mysterious Nine. Everyone who accepted the first invitation last Friday will have a new experience this week. If you missed it last week, don’t worry. You can pick it up this Friday. There won’t be a cutscene every week, but that definitely wasn’t the last one you’ll see.
Iron Sharpens Iron
The Iron Banner returns for the first time in Season 6 next week!
Iron Banner and Double Valor
Start: 10 AM PDT on March 26
End: 10 AM PDT on April 2
This season, Lord Saladin has a few new tricks up his ironclad sleeve. We’re introducing two new consumable items that will change the flow of combat through temporary Power level adjustments.
Iron Burden
The Iron Burden consumable is for the best of the best to challenge themselves by lowering their Power by 100, putting more focus on skill, strategy, and gunplay. With greater risk comes greater reward. For the brave, Saladin will be offering the Iron Burden consumable for purchase with 5 Iron Banner Tokens. There will be a new Triumph you can complete this Season by defeating 500 opponents while the Iron Burden debuff is active. Completing it will reward you with an updated version of Wizened Rebuke that is fully Masterworked and has a curated roll. You don’t have to complete this during the first event. Your progress will carry over to the next Iron Banner.
Wolf’s Favor
For those of you who find yourselves in PvE activities more frequently, the Wolf’s Favor consumable has been added as an invitation to try your hand in the Iron Banner. These consumables, which will drop with limited availability, grant a temporary 100 Power increase, up to a cap of 700, for 30 minutes. Our goal here is to help those who don’t normally play Crucible take a step in to the action.
The Wolf’s Favor consumable has a chance to drop from completing the following daily and weekly challenges:
Daily Heroic story mission
Vanguard strikes
Nightfall
Flashpoints
Gambit (Forsaken only)
Weekly milestones from Ikora and Hawthorne
Reward Updates
Bounties have been updated to provide more choice and address feedback from previous Seasons over how long it took to earn progress toward various objectives. Each bounty will grant a powerful reward upon completion. Additionally, completion of a bounty will unlock the ability to direct purchase specific rewards from Lord Saladin. Saladin will also offer a new emblem you can pick up after completing all the weekly bounties called the Weight of Guilt. It will track higher-Power opponents defeated while under the effects of The Iron Burden. We have also added an updated version of Orewing’s Maul with random rolls that will drop from match completion and from token packages.
We’re trying something new with Iron Banner this season. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback. Let us know what you think about the changes after you spend some time in the Crucible.
Strengthen Your Core
As you make progress in Season of the Drifter, you’ll be making choices about which weapons and armor you want to power up first. We’ve been following the conversation around the use of Enhancement Cores for infusion. As a response, the Destiny Dev Team have some changes lined up that they want to share.
Destiny Dev Team: The goal of the infusion system is to create an impactful feeling of progression when you increase the Power of an item you enjoy using. An infusion system with no scarcity around the materials would diminish this impact. To that end, we tapped into a material with inherent scarceness, Enhancement Cores, to use as one of the keystone materials for this process.
That is the goal the infusion system, but if the overall system is causing a negative experience, we want to work to improve it. We’re constantly monitoring the infusion economy to see what kind of impact it has on gear usage. We keep a close eye on the amount of infusion materials being earned versus how many are being used and will continue to make adjustments as needed.
To that end, we’ll be making a change in Season of Opulence with the goal of providing more access to Enhancement Cores.
Scrapper Bounties previously dropped randomly when dismantling gear. There was no reliable way to earn Enhancement Cores using these bounties, and we didn’t feel they were providing enough materials. We will be deprecating these bounties at the start of Season 7. (Note that any unfinished Scrapper Bounties still in your inventory when the new season begins can still be completed before their natural expiration.) In their place, the Gunsmith will now offer a selection of daily and weekly bounties that can be purchased for Gunsmith Materials. As with the Scrapper Bounties, each of these will include, among other things, an Enhancement Core as a reward when completed.
Our hope is that this increased access and control over Enhancement Core acquisition will help improve the balance of materials being earned vs. materials being used. As always, we’ll be continuously monitoring this item economy, along with your feedback to assess its effectiveness.
Who Do You Truly Serve?
Season of the Drifter offers your characters an interesting choice. Your decision impacts your experience with both the story and the world around you. So far, we’ve enjoyed watching the debate between Team Drifter and Team Vanguard.
We wanted to give you a little insight into where the community has been pledging their allegiance. The following two graphics show which side is receiving the most pledges. The first graph is an account-level look and looks at data on which side you pledged to first. The second is character based, and takes into account all the characters that pledged overall.
Account-level
Character-level
So far the Drifter has received a lot of support. The question still remains: Should he be trusted?
Helping Hands
The Player Support Team is on the front line every day, making sure any issues are properly triaged and sent to the dev team for fixing.
This is their report.
Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.2.0.2
Last week, we highlighted an issue where players with full Pursuits inventories were not receiving their Allegiance quest item from the Drifter, regardless of which side they chose. With the conclusion of our Tuesday maintenance, we expect this issue to be resolved.
In addition to this change, we’d like to highlight the resolution of the following issues:
Fixed an issue where the Dark Age Arsenal Triumph was not properly unlocking when players won Gambit matches with a full set of Gambit gear equipped
Fixed an issue where Glory Win Streak Triumphs from previous Seasons were updating on wins in Season of the Drifter
Destiny General Service Maintenance
Earlier today, between 10–11 AM PDT, all Destiny services underwent scheduled maintenance. This involved taking both Destiny and Destiny 2 offline across all platforms, and no changes were made to the game experience.
Players who observed issues following this maintenance should report them to the #Help forum.
Destiny 2 Season of the Drifter Known Issues
This week, we’d like to take the opportunity to revisit some existing known issues, which we’ve covered in past weeks.
Stronghold Titan Exotic: We’re investigating an issue where the “Clenched Fist” perk is not activating on the Stronghold Exotic Titan gauntlets when players use Exotic swords, such as Black Talon.
The Vow Infusion: We’re investigating an issue where the Vow cannot be infused above 650 Power.
Crimson Days at Shaxx: We’re investigating an issue where Lord Shaxx shows Crimson Days UI for some players in the Tower map.
GUITAR Errors in Last Wish: We’re investigating an issue where players may still receive GUITAR errors in the “Last Wish” raid.
Season 6 Eververse Shaders: We’re investigating an issue where Season 6 Eververse shaders don’t give back Bright Dust when they are dismantled using the Cryptarch’s Shader Recycling.
Chaos Reach and Thorn’s Soul Devourer: We’re investigating an issue where Chaos Reach won’t do any damage to an enemy when that enemy is shot by Thorn when Soul Devourer is active.
Invitations of the Nine “Ecdysis” Triumphs: We’re investigating an issue where these triumphs may not always unlock when completing an Invitation of the Nine.
For the running list of all issues tracked by Destiny Player Support, players are encouraged to visit our Destiny 2 Known Issues help page. Players who encounter other issues should report to the #Help forum.
When reporting a gameplay issue, providing screenshots, captured video, or repro steps will help Destiny Player Support investigate your report.
Week of the Movie
Welcome to Movie of the Week. Does anyone read this section? Or do you just skip down to the movies? I don’t blame you—they are pretty good. I’ve probably written this section over 100 times now, and I’m running out of ways to tell you that this is where we pick our favorite videos each week to share them with the community. The best place to submit your entry is our Creations Page, but you can also win if we discover your video randomly on the internet and enjoy it. Did I mention the emblem yet? You get an emblem if you win. Just make sure you put everyone’s player name who worked on the video in the description of the video. Thanks for taking the time to read this section. Enjoy the videos.
Movie of the Week: Destiny War 2
Honorable Mention: D2 Music Video
Oh yeah, there was a Bungie Bounty this week as well. Dmg04 led a brave fireteam comprised of players from Team Velveeta (our very own ant-cheese test task force) to an impressive record in Gambit Prime. You can watch the whole thing right here. We have one more bounty planned on PC for April 3 at 10 AM PDT. In the last two bounties, Bungie has bested most of our challengers. We invite you to break the streak. Find us, kick our ass, and earn a sweet emblem.
We are working on some plans to put some more bounties out in the wild on all three platforms in multiple locations. We will give you more details soon.
Dead Cells’ The Beheaded Joins The Battle In Brawlout On Switch
Indie arena fighter Brawlout has a brand new fighter in its roster thanks to this week’s Version 2.0 update, and it’s none other than Dead Cells protagonist, The Beheaded.
That’s right, Dead Cells joins Yooka-Laylee, Guacamelee, and Hyper Light Drifter as part of the game’s ever-expanding roster; with 21 original characters also on the bill, the game now features 25 fighters overall. The character’s addition (and the extras that come with it) isn’t the only thing that’s new, though:
“With the 2.0 update, we’re adding not only a new character and stage, but making every multiplayer game mode playable online and bringing our brand-new ‘Trials’ single-player mode to all platforms while delivering many of the balance and gameplay changes our community has long asked for.”
If you’re a fan of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and want something new to get your fighting teeth stuck into, Brawlout could well be your answer; we said that its “action feels tight, fast, and it can be a pleasure to play” in our review, noting the lack of variety in the character roster as being one of the few downfalls – something which is slowly but surely being fixed.
Do you own Brawlout on Switch? Will you be jumping back into the action after this update? Tell us below.
Free-To-Play Fighter Brawlhalla Adds Hellboy Characters Next Month
Hot on the heels of the Brawlout x Dead Cells news, Ubisoft has revealed that Brawlhalla is also about to get a roster boost, this time in the form of a collection of characters from 2019’s Hellboy movie.
The news comes thanks to a partnership between Ubisoft and production company Lionsgate, which sees the iconic Hellboy characters Nimue, Gruagach, Ben Daimio, and Hellboy himself join Brawlhalla’s roster in April.
If you haven’t already checked out Brawlhalla, here’s a snippet of our review (it’s free-to-play, so you may as well give it a go if you’re interested):
Though a bit uninspired, Brawlhalla still stands as a solid example of how to do a proper platform fighter, with several game modes, a diverse cast and a beautiful art style making this one easy to recommend. Perhaps best of all, it’s totally free, so you really don’t have anything to lose by giving it a try. At worst, you’ll find a Smash clone that doesn’t have a ton of new ideas; at best, you’ll find a new go-to for when you have a few friends over for a gaming session.
Are you a fan of this free-to-play fighter? Will you be checking out these new fighters next month? Let us know in the usual place.
As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world, to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan?s survival. What begins as a classic action platformer soon unravels into an expansive time-traveling adventure full of thrills, surprises, and humor.
Watch The Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest Keynote, Shadowbringers News Teased
The Final Fantasy Fan Festival 2019 is taking place this weekend in Tokyo, and some news about Final Fantasy XIV is expected. The event kicks off with a keynote address featuring none other than game director Naoki Yoshida speaking to the crowd at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo and broadcast online around the world. According to Square Enix, you can expect Yoshida to talk about "new announcements" for the game's next expansion, Shadowbringers, which is due out this year.
The keynote begins March 23 at 10:30 AM JST, which works out to 6:30 PM PT / 9:30 PM ET. You can watch the stream live from the official Final Fantasy XIV Twitch channel in Japanese or with English commentary on the official Square Enix Twitch channel. The commentary will be handled by Final Fantasy XIV's Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and community director Matt Hilton. They won't translate in real-time but instead go over and discuss the key takeaways.
The Fan Festival 2019 runs March 23-24, and there is heaps more programming that you can watch. This includes another segment with Naoki called "Naoki's Room" where he invites special guests to the stage to talk about things that "don't quite fit anywhere else." Some of the guests include various voice actors, as well as executive producer and member of the board Yosuke Saito.
There will also be a cosplay contest, where fans will show off their best outfits based on Final Fantasy characters.
Some of the Day 2 programming includes a "Letter From the Producer" segment where Yoshida talks about new details about Final Fantasy XIV as well as a development panel where developers will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the game is made.
Be sure to visit the Final Fantasy XIV website to see a full rundown of programming for the Fan Festival. GameSpot is on the ground in Tokyo for Fan Festival, so keep checking back all weekend for more coverage from the event.
Disclosure: Square Enix paid for GameSpot's flight to Tokyo and accomodation.
Super Mario Party Finally Gets Its First Update, But It’s Far From Exciting
We had a lot of fun with Super Mario Party when it launched last October – we called it a “beautifully realised Mario Party game which takes the series right back to its roots” in our review – but we always thought it could have done with another board or two to enjoy via an update or DLC package.
Well, as it happens, the game has finally received its very first update, taking the game to Version 1.0.1. Unfortunately, though, the update doesn’t contain any new content:
Version 1.0.1 Patch Notes: – Online: Fixed an issue with Online Mariothon in which ranking data was not displaying properly.
Oh.
We’re actually quite surprised that it hasn’t received any free content updates like Mario Tennis Aces, Splatoon 2, and ARMS did before it, or even new board sets as paid DLC. Once you’ve played through everything the game has to offer a few times, things can get a little stale, and new boards would be the perfect way to renew our interest in the whole thing. Maybe they’ll arrive one day, but that day sadly isn’t today.
What do you think? Should Nintendo add new content to Super Mario Party? Would that make you jump back in for more rounds, or do you still play it regularly today? Let us know down below.
