This article originally appeared on ABACUS Google finally took the wraps off their game streaming service this week. And we broke it all down on the latest episode of our gaming podcast, You Died. Google Stadia is part of a new generation of services that stream your games directly from the cloud. Instead of having the game operate on your device -- requiring a console, or smartphone or PC powerful enough to run the game -- the game runs on a server in the cloud. Your device receives the video as a live stream -- broadly similar to watching YouTube or Netflix, with the key difference that instead of passively watching, it also has to send your control inputs back to the server in the cloud. The idea has been around for a while -- there was OnLive, for one, and Sony has had PlayStation Now for a while. But lag has been an issue: The physical distance between your device and the server means it takes time for video to be sent from the cloud to you, and time for your controls and commands to be sent back to the cloud. Google thinks it has finally cracked the problem, and the massive number of datacenters it has scattered across the globe can ensure that no gamer is ever too far from a server. But will it catch on? Our podcast crew -- which has expanded with Shea Driscoll joining us as a regular instead of just "best guest ever" -- varies on their opinion. We are admittedly probably not the target audience. On this episode, we also go over the games we've been playing recently, touching everything from Breath of the Wild to Baba is You. And here's a bonus: We don't mention Red Dead Redemption 2 at all. (Seriously!) Let us know how you feel about Google Stadia on social media! You can reach out to me on Twitter here , or Victoria here . (Shea boycotts Twitter.) And good news: Our podcasts are (almost) everywhere! Click the below links to listen to us on: iTunes Spotify Soundcloud Stitcher For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters , subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast , and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report . Also roam China Tech City , an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus .
