WEBVTT 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:07.319 you can do this this is my job do you have 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:11.820 any idea do you have any idea how games were developed for Google stadia because 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:16.500 I don't but it has got to be totally different and I bet it's fascinating and 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:21.300 if we don't learn about it now we may never get the opportunity the thing is 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:22.980 for traditional consoles there's always 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:28.199 some development hardware and documentation that goes missing and 00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:33.420 finds its way onto eBay even if it takes years but this time everything's in the 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:39.540 cloud so next month when Google presses that button it's gone or is it see the 00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:44.340 thing about rug pulling an entire industry of passionate creatives is that 00:00:41.879 --> 00:00:52.940 someone is going to end up salty enough to say screw it to your NDA and talk to 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:52.940 the press and we found one such someone 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:59.219 we not only got our hands on extensive documentation and screen capture so that 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:04.920 we can preserve this important little piece of gaming history but we also got 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:11.580 a stadia development node a piece of Hardware designed to play stadia Cloud 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:14.159 games but from right in front of you 00:01:11.580 --> 00:01:19.080 time really is a flat circle isn't it I had no idea that these things even 00:01:15.900 --> 00:01:21.299 existed but they do and we're going to 00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:26.100 be taking a close look you know what else exists this message from our 00:01:23.460 --> 00:01:30.360 sponsor hetzner hesner offers high performance Cloud servers for a great 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:34.500 price they Now cover the east and west coast of the United States with their 00:01:32.220 --> 00:01:40.280 latest location in Hillsboro Oregon use the code ltt22 at the link below for 20 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.280 off 00:01:45.500 --> 00:01:51.479 thank you when you create a game 00:01:48.659 --> 00:01:55.740 particularly AAA assets are often version controlled by perforce and 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:59.820 stored on a local server as well as on your own workstation as you develop team 00:01:58.020 --> 00:02:04.560 members submit their changes to the server and new builds get created for QA 00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:08.459 to test these builds are then loaded onto Dev kits that will attempt to run 00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:12.780 them locally on pre-production Hardware that's pretty much the workflow that 00:02:10.440 --> 00:02:18.300 we've shown before and the process with stadia game development was similar but 00:02:16.260 --> 00:02:24.300 with a key difference and that's that for most developers there is no local 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:28.800 testing Hardware at all instead you would have to submit your build and wait 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:34.920 for it to transfer to Google servers a process that could take up to 40 minutes 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:37.980 for wait for it about two gigabytes of 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:40.140 content for context a 60 Gigabyte game 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:44.220 should take just a few minutes to load onto a dead kit console as long as 00:02:42.239 --> 00:02:48.300 you've got good infrastructure talk about an efficiency nightmare there are 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:52.080 workarounds if you're desperate someone can make a change in unity for example 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:57.360 and then just try it on their development workstation to see if it 00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:58.860 works but to properly verify you need to 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:03.840 run it on the same Hardware that the user will have in a build package that's 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:08.400 why in a typical Studio most devs would have their own console or more than one 00:03:06.540 --> 00:03:13.319 console at their desk so they can quickly verify changes of course that 00:03:11.459 --> 00:03:18.360 version of things you know where stadia doesn't have local dead kits doesn't 00:03:15.420 --> 00:03:23.180 really jive with the existence of this does it ah well when these slow transfer 00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:28.860 speeds become an insurmountable problem for you 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:36.980 you can actually reach out to Google and request a local Dev node like this one 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:40.140 which is basically a stadia Cloud Server 00:03:36.980 --> 00:03:43.080 that sits right on your desk as far as 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:48.440 our friend could tell they didn't just hand them out to anyone though you had 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:50.879 to justify why you needed one and 00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:56.280 even once you were approved the experience wasn't exactly uh the white 00:03:53.819 --> 00:04:00.060 glove for example they asked Google about providing controllers and the 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:05.280 reply was a link to the product page where they could buy them for MSRP 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:10.040 nice so with all that work out of the way what exactly is it do you get in the 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:15.900 mail on the surface it appears to be a stadia branded Lenovo think station but 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:19.519 maybe we're going to find something more interesting on the inside 00:04:19.799 --> 00:04:27.240 there we go a little Dusty what are we looking at here well it 00:04:25.020 --> 00:04:32.699 isn't getting less standard looking I love that Lenovo does their front i o on 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:34.080 an actual hard PCB instead of with wires 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:38.580 so that's pretty cool for cable management wow 64 gigs of RAM that's a 00:04:36.660 --> 00:04:41.820 lot for a gaming PC I wonder if that's just lenovo's minimum spec mind you 00:04:40.440 --> 00:04:47.900 think they're ordering enough to customize The Branding on the front oh 00:04:43.979 --> 00:04:47.900 that's apparently really easy to do 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:53.820 modular even the CPU is only a six core 00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:59.280 meaning that this thing pedestrian spec other than you know 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:05.580 obviously having a workstation class GPU in it and even this workstation GPU it's 00:05:02.759 --> 00:05:10.020 not exactly a powerful one not that we'll have any way of knowing that for 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:16.199 sure because unfortunately we couldn't find any reference to the Radeon Pro 00:05:12.479 --> 00:05:18.720 v320 on AMD's site whatsoever and in 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:23.280 fact the only resource we could find was a tech power up page that had different 00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:28.080 specs listed than the card that we have the page says 16 gigs of RAM but ours 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:33.720 apparently only has eight so it's actually even worse than a basic v320 no 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:39.060 it's not bad is our basic blank t-shirts ltdstore.com 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:43.680 so if this thing isn't powerful then how could it be useful for development well 00:05:41.039 --> 00:05:48.960 it's because it's not for actually doing development like a console dev kit this 00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:53.100 station is for testing to see how your game is going to run stop for making the 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:57.840 game so it makes sense that you would want a test node that isn't too powerful 00:05:55.620 --> 00:06:02.160 you'd want something that's as close to the servers that Google is using to run 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:06.000 the service as possible that way what the dev sees there at their station 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:10.680 should be representative of the end user experience now 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:14.340 obviously an army of Lenovo think stations isn't exactly what Google is 00:06:12.960 --> 00:06:18.300 using in their data centers they actually confirmed the hardware specs 00:06:15.960 --> 00:06:25.199 for stadia and we know that each of their servers can run four 1080p 00:06:20.820 --> 00:06:27.539 instances ours can only do one but it 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:32.520 seems to be pretty close airing on the side of not as powerful our Dev friend 00:06:30.539 --> 00:06:37.319 who sent us the node mentioned that with how well some games ran at 1080p through 00:06:34.979 --> 00:06:41.880 the cloud the data center nodes might actually have better gpus and I guess 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:45.240 obviously the 4K nodes would be substantially better than this but we 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:51.419 weren't able to get our hands on one of those stadia splash screen in the BIOS this is 00:06:49.380 --> 00:06:57.080 what happens this is it the fan gets louder okay 00:06:53.940 --> 00:06:57.080 fans ramping up 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:05.400 and fits so much fan in this bad boy and that's actually as far as we're 00:07:03.419 --> 00:07:10.500 gonna get with the software if we connected this Ethernet cable it might 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:12.600 boot up but our kit would immediately 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:16.919 phone home reporting a location that is hundreds or thousands of kilometers from 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:20.940 where it's supposed to be and our friend would get a nasty letter in the mail 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:25.199 from Google's lawyers but that doesn't mean our adventure is over if we could 00:07:23.460 --> 00:07:30.240 plug it into a network and launch a game it might look a little something like 00:07:27.479 --> 00:07:36.240 this you launched the stadia partner portal on your PC and select a node from 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:38.699 the pool it'll either be a remote one or 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:42.660 your local one if you're so lucky once it's reserved you then create an 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:46.560 instance of your game by selecting the application and which version of it you 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:50.039 want to launch there's a one terabyte drive in our node so you can store 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:53.160 plenty of iterations of your projects as long as you have the space you select 00:07:51.599 --> 00:07:58.979 which end point you want your instance to launch from and boom we're in at this 00:07:57.060 --> 00:08:04.860 point you're testing your game like you would on any other dev kit pretty cool 00:08:01.340 --> 00:08:06.780 but this local node actually still 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:11.819 suffers from a problem that the main servers at Google also have when you're 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:15.599 testing unfinished software crashes and hangs are inevitable and they can 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:21.900 sometimes be so bad that you need to restart your test console with stadia 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:25.139 that takes at least 10 to 15 minutes for 00:08:21.900 --> 00:08:26.639 it to reboot and re-register itself with 00:08:25.139 --> 00:08:30.360 the back end I don't know when the last time you restarted your PS5 or your Xbox 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:35.339 was but I mean a minute maybe two minutes tops 00:08:33.300 --> 00:08:38.880 so it's easy to see why developers might want to avoid this sort of workflow 00:08:37.020 --> 00:08:44.459 considering how much time is potentially wasted at all these steps of the game 00:08:41.459 --> 00:08:47.040 creation process but somehow they were 00:08:44.459 --> 00:08:52.560 still doing it developing for stadia and everything seemed to be going pretty 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:54.660 okay so why did Google just kill this 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:59.880 entire project the memes have certainly been fun but humor aside there are also 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:05.339 Legions of satisfied stadia customers and successful devs who were making 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:08.760 money hand over fist at least once the payment model got changed from getting 00:09:06.839 --> 00:09:12.720 cash up front to a cut of the subscription Revenue based on time 00:09:10.380 --> 00:09:16.380 played so there are people whose lives have been affected in a very negative 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:19.800 way by ghoul's decision here like if you had a big chunk of the user base playing 00:09:18.060 --> 00:09:23.700 your game every day we're talking potentially hundreds of thousands of 00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:28.380 dollars a month without hard numbers we can't say exactly how many stadia users 00:09:26.220 --> 00:09:33.360 and stadia pro subscribers there were but a few rough internet put the Peak at 00:09:31.680 --> 00:09:37.140 about 2 million and that sounds realistic given that anyone with a phone 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:42.000 could install the free app however stadia Pro was a monthly 10 subscription 00:09:40.140 --> 00:09:49.380 and the estimates seemed to vary for that one between 160 to 180 000 active 00:09:45.540 --> 00:09:51.360 users if we average to 170 that's 1.7 00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:57.779 million dollars in Revenue per month which is a lot of money 00:09:53.880 --> 00:09:59.339 but not nearly enough when you consider 00:09:57.779 --> 00:10:04.200 the overhead that it needs to support the stadia team at Google was apparently 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:08.700 hundreds of employees nearly 300 at its peak plus they needed to maintain 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:14.580 hardware and programs for Distributing it and infrastructure and obviously they 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:19.500 needed to pay out a significant chunk of that Revenue in shares to game 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:22.260 developers but in spite of how obviously 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:27.779 unsustainable all of that sounds now in the aftermath apparently at no point did 00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:31.380 anyone internally at Google seem to acknowledge that stadia was on its 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:37.080 deathbed despite all of the outside rumors it was seemingly business as 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.899 usual right up until the very bitter end 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:44.279 in February of 2021 Google shut down their in-house Dev Studio but insisted 00:10:42.540 --> 00:10:48.420 that it was for the best so they could focus on the business side of things 00:10:45.839 --> 00:10:52.920 then in July they tried lowering their cut of the sales then in September they 00:10:50.579 --> 00:10:57.420 moved Jack buser to Google Cloud's head of gaming Solutions in November they cut 00:10:55.140 --> 00:11:03.300 the price of the hardware from 60 to 22 dollars as the program was now two years 00:11:00.060 --> 00:11:05.399 old cute and then in February of 2022 00:11:03.300 --> 00:11:10.140 they said that everything was perfectly fine despite rumors of an internal 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:15.360 stadia deprioritization right our inside source says that they 00:11:13.079 --> 00:11:20.820 and every other Studio were being lied to just as much as we were and we have 00:11:18.540 --> 00:11:24.839 no way of knowing how high up the chain you actually needed to be to know what 00:11:22.980 --> 00:11:28.680 was going on when rumors popped up in the summer they emailed corporate the 00:11:26.760 --> 00:11:32.519 dev friend and they got a reassuring reply a couple of days before the 00:11:30.660 --> 00:11:36.540 announcement they actually got a new version of the SDK the software 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:41.579 development kit that was pushed out to developers to work on stadia an industry 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:46.740 colleague of our friends from another Studio even flew from Japan to San 00:11:44.459 --> 00:11:51.480 Francisco to talk about the future of stadia with Google the day before they 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:54.779 shut it all down now luckily for the team we got this unit from the writing 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:59.100 was on the wall and they had already pivoted to porting their game to other 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:03.660 platforms as for others Google's actually trying pretty hard to properly 00:12:01.140 --> 00:12:07.800 pay out Studios Fair shares almost like like a severance for a fired employee 00:12:05.579 --> 00:12:12.660 customers have already been refunded or are going to get refunds and Google is 00:12:10.079 --> 00:12:16.740 isn't broke so hopefully the check's clear and that's all sorted out pretty 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:20.279 quickly in fact it they've done such a good job of canning this thing that the 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.339 person we spoke with only had good things to say about their experience 00:12:21.660 --> 00:12:28.380 dealing with Google they all seem friendly they're nice to work with it 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:32.579 almost has this like super weird mutual breakup Vibe will anyone ever trust 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:37.500 Google if they try to re-enter the gaming space almost certainly not but 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:40.560 there doesn't seem to be a lot of anger either with the entirety of what's 00:12:39.060 --> 00:12:44.339 referred to as the Google graveyard being in plain view for anyone to see 00:12:42.060 --> 00:12:47.880 it's almost like everyone kind of knew this was coming but they were willing to 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:51.899 take the bag of money for their work and see if who knows maybe this is one of 00:12:49.680 --> 00:12:57.420 those projects that stays hey maybe let's hear the game the name came from 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:59.459 stay the uh not so much though maybe it 00:12:57.420 --> 00:13:03.060 will stay around in some form I have no evidence to support either of these 00:13:00.839 --> 00:13:07.920 theories but I think it's possible that Google could sell the technology to an 00:13:05.459 --> 00:13:11.940 interested party and I also don't think it's impossible that stadia could reach 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:16.800 surface as a business to business product say a mobile carrier wanted to 00:13:14.880 --> 00:13:20.760 introduce a cloud gaming service they could use white label stadia to spin it 00:13:19.079 --> 00:13:25.440 up extremely quickly until that happens though it's yet another line on killed 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:28.860 by google.com which for those who are not in the know is an amazing site that 00:13:27.300 --> 00:13:33.899 Chronicles all the products and services that Google has launched ran sometimes 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:37.980 for years and ultimately killed at least in this case unlike Google play music 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:41.639 which is still better than YouTube music they have fully compensated their 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:45.660 customers and seemingly Partners but there is one more thing that I would 00:13:43.560 --> 00:13:51.420 like to see resolved that's the stadia controller while it can be used on your 00:13:47.880 --> 00:13:54.300 PC with a USBC cable I suspect that many 00:13:51.420 --> 00:13:57.839 gamers in 2022 and Beyond are not going to want to deal with that and are going 00:13:55.800 --> 00:14:03.060 to end up junking them so Google I'm asking you please either provide a fix 00:14:00.959 --> 00:14:07.800 or open up the firmware so that the community can work on getting it working 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:08.880 wirelessly over Bluetooth please and 00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:13.560 thank you and thank you for checking out our 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:18.000 sponsor Squarespace if you need to build a brand online you need a website but 00:14:15.839 --> 00:14:21.360 but Linus I just learned how to turn on the little flashlight on my phone how am 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:26.279 I going to build a whole website you ask with Squarespace Squarespace is a 00:14:23.880 --> 00:14:28.980 One-Stop No Frills all-in-one platform for expanding your presence on the 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:32.639 internet Squarespace lets you build beautiful websites engage with your 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:36.240 audience and sell anything and everything from products to content 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:41.040 without needing to attend the Linus techwort School of tech Wizardry we love 00:14:38.940 --> 00:14:44.820 Squarespace so much that we use it here at Linus Media Group it's custom 00:14:42.839 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