Stadia

Microsoft Xbox executive believes Google Stadia won’t match local gameplay, will lack content

Ben Schoon | Apr 11 2019 - 11:08 am PT

There’s still a tremendous amount we don’t know about Google’s game streaming service Stadia, but some have already formed their opinions. In a recent interview, one executive for Microsoft’s Xbox expressed some thoughts on Google Stadia, “rubbishing” on the upcoming service.

Speaking to The Telegraph (via WCCFTech), Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer for Xbox, Mike Nichols, had a few choice words regarding Google’s efforts to get into gaming. In the interview, Nichols makes it clear that he doesn’t think Google Stadia can match what Xbox has to offer.

One point for Nichlos is that he believes the cloud-based Google Stadia can’t match the experience you’d get on a local machine, such as the Xbox. He’s concerned with the expected 20GB per hour internet use of the service, as well as the input lag it might have.

However, the main concern he has is content. Nichlos believes that Google simply doesn’t have the relationships to properly deliver a strong content library. While Google has confirmed some big names, the list of games that will be supported is largely unknown. Even though Google has said it’s seeing great support from the gaming community and is working on its own original content for Stadia, it remains to be seen how that will compete with platforms such as Xbox.

Emerging competitors like Google have a cloud infrastructure, a community with YouTube, but they don’t have the content… You won’t necessarily need a device over time, but you’ll get the best experience with local processing power.