How well does Google Stadia work in Switzerland?

Philipp Rüegg

6.12.2019

Translation: machine translated

Google Stadia is not available in Switzerland - at least not yet. But I tried it out anyway. I'll show you how it works, how big the input lag is and whether it's worth the effort.

Simply stream games from the cloud to any device. No expensive hardware, no annoying software updates and maximum flexibility. In theory, game streaming sounds like a dream. Google is trying to turn this dream into reality with Stadia. Unfortunately, we Swiss are once again left out in the cold. We'll probably have to wait until next year. That hasn't stopped me from trying out Stadia now - with the help of a VPN. It worked better than I expected and only took a few minutes. Even if the following text might give you a different impression.

Easy to get, more difficult to use

Google Stadia will be available in two versions. A free version that offers you 1080p and stereo sound and a Pro version for 10 euros a month with UHD resolution, surround sound and HDR. Only the latter is currently available. For the plan fee, you get a discount on various games and regularly get a few free games on top - similar to PSN or Xbox Live. There is no flat rate like Netflix.

Not only are you currently limited to the Pro version, you also have to buy the Founder or Premier edition. Without it, you will not receive an access code with which you can activate your account. This edition costs 130 euros and includes a three-month plan, the Stadia Controller and a Chromecast Ultra so you can play on your TV. A Buddy Pass, so that a buddy also receives three free months, is only included in the Founders Edition, which is now on sale.

Stadia is only available via the Google Store. As Stadia is not yet available in Switzerland, you have to switch the store to Germany. You can then easily buy the Premiere Edition with your Swiss credit card. Enter a delivery address in Germany. There are various parcel services that will provide you with a PO box for this purpose.

What I didn't think about when pre-ordering is that Stadia only works in countries where the service is available. In Switzerland, you can download the app, use the website and buy games. But as soon as you want to play, you are told that the game publisher has limited availability in your country. This is not the last time that Google has blamed a problem on someone else.

So what can you do? Get yourself a VPN. VPNs are services that allow you to hide your location. Your internet connection is then redirected via servers in another country. This is good for your privacy, but also if you want to use services that are not available here. For example, Disney+ or Google Stadia. While a fast connection is less important for video services, the additional lag caused by the redirection can make the whole endeavour unusable for games. However, many suppliers advertise that even online games are possible with VPN. I rely on ExpressVPN, as this app is available on almost all devices.

What Stadia offers and what it doesn't

Google showed off many interesting functions at the Stadia launch, which are intended to set the service apart from classic gaming on a PC or console. These include things like getting into the game directly from a Let's Play on YouTube, using the Google Assistant for in-game tips or full wireless functionality of the controller. The controller was supposed to connect directly to your network, which would reduce input lag and allow you to switch seamlessly from TV to laptop to smartphone. None of this was ready for the launch.

You can currently buy 22 games from Stadia. You can get "Tomb Raider Definitive Edition", "Farming Simulator 19", "Destiny 2 The Collection" and "Samurai Shodown" for free as a Pro user. The remaining titles are often heavily discounted with the plan, but they are still cheaper on other platforms. For "Red Dead Redemption 2", for example, you pay the full 60 euros.

Stadia can be played on any computer with the latest version of Chrome. On a smartphone, it is currently only possible if you own a Pixel 2, Pixel 3, Pixel 3a or Pixel 4. Use on a television is also still limited. Later, it should work on Android TV or other Chromecast-compatible devices. For the time being, you are dependent on the Chromecast Ultra supplied. Some users report, however, that if you activate the preview programme (via a click in the Chromecast settings), existing Chromecast Ultras will also receive the necessary firmware upgrade.

Setup and operation

If you want to game on a PC or laptop, it's very simple. Once you have entered the activation code, you can start a game directly from the Stadia website.

Using the app is very simple. It starts automatically as soon as you connect the controller to the screen of your choice. It has a simple and clear design (no wonder, there isn't much yet) and the last game you started appears right at the top.

Now comes another but. You still have to use the controller with cable on your smartphone. This is doubly disadvantageous, because gaming sucks up a lot of battery and because the controller blocks the USB port, you can't charge at the same time (with the exception of a ROG II phone, for example).

It's also annoying that although you have a dedicated button for screenshots and recordings, the images and videos are only available in the app. Ironically, you can't take screenshots on your smartphone. And you can neither share them with the app nor extract them. I had to use my Google account to extract the Stadia data. An absolutely stupid and unnecessary workaround.

You don't have to play with the Stadia controller. PS4, Xbox or Switch controllers are also compatible. You can find out how and where on this page.

Setting up on the TV with the Chromecast takes a little longer, but it worked for me straight away. The problem here is that the VPN app is useless. As the Chromecast connects directly to your network, the VPN trick only works if you set up a virtual VPN network or your router supports VPN. That was definitely too much effort for me. I also tried to access Stadia via Chrome on my Nvidia Shield. The games start, but then neither the controller nor the mouse and keyboard are recognised.

The controller

To say something positive in between. There's nothing wrong with the Stadia controller. It is very comfortable to hold and feels very robust. The layout is the same as the Dualshock 4, the buttons have pleasant pressure points and the D-pad is also decent. Something that is neglected far too often. The analogue sticks have just the right amount of resistance for me and the surface is slightly ribbed for a better grip. It can easily keep up with the Dualshock 4 or the Xbox One controller.

In addition to the standard buttons, there is one for the menu, one for options, one for recording, one for the Google Assistant and the Stadia button. The controller has a 3.5 mm connection for a headset on the underside.

Subjective performance

When I realised that Stadia wasn't running at all in Switzerland due to geoblocking, I actually wanted to write off my test. More out of curiosity, I tried it anyway with VPN and lo and behold, it worked better than expected. That doesn't mean I want to play with it seriously. But one thing at a time.

I tested Stadia at home and in the office on my PC, laptop and smartphone. On the PC via LAN and on the laptop and smartphone via WLAN. The acid test for me was Stadia on the PC with a mouse and keyboard. I was surprised at how little input lag there was. I can detect the delay, but it is extremely low. In "Destiny 2", for example, the reason why it seems smoother to me is probably due to the higher frames and hertz. Stadia only delivers 60 fps while the game runs at 100 fps at 100 Hz on my PC.

What makes "Destiny 2" via Stadia a no-go for me is, on the one hand, that the 21:9 format is not supported and, on the other, that the picture quality probably corresponds more to the medium quality level. The local version looks much sharper and more detailed. Google shifts the responsibility for the lack of UHD resolution and 60 fps in various games to the developers and continues to stand by the promised performance. However, the developers have this in their own hands.

The same with "Red Dead Redemption 2": Input lag is tolerable, especially if you're playing with controllers. But the graphical compromise is far too high for me. And especially when you start the game fresh, the first ten or twenty seconds are sometimes very jerky. I also had minor dropouts during the game. In "Red Dead Redemption 2", I rode over a few passers-by, which immediately called a horde of sheriffs onto the scene. In the racing game "Grid", I usually kissed the nearest wall when there were jerks.

The graphical downgrade is less noticeable on the 13-inch laptop display. I can rather imagine playing a round of Stadia there. After all, the games definitely look good enough on a smartphone. And the whole thing works without any problems over home Wi-Fi, despite the VPN. In the office, I had to contend with more stuttering and picture interference on both my laptop and smartphone. A stable internet connection - especially with a VPN - is an absolute must. Nothing worked at all on my mobile network. Then Stadia wouldn't start a game.

Where the lag is more noticeable is with the sound. From the moment I fire a gun until the sound comes out of the speakers, there is definitely a slight delay. However, it's within a tolerable range and after a few minutes I've usually forgotten about it.

Measured performance

So much for the subjective impressions. I also measured the input lag. To do this, I filmed the respective setup with the slow motion camera of my Pixel 4 at 240 fps and counted the frames between my input and the action on the screen. You then divide the frames by 240 and multiply the result by 1000 to get the delay in milliseconds. With 35 frames, as I measured in "Destiny 2" on the PC, the equation looks like this

(34/240) x 1000 = 141 ms

It's not a perfect measurement method, but it's enough to get a relative impression.

On a smartphone, however, the method is not the most accurate. It is difficult to recognise exactly when the controller triggers. On the PC, there is a practical tool that lights up the Numlock light as soon as you press the mouse. This is clearly visible in the slow motion video.

At home I have a 1 Gbit/s line. Speedtest.net shows me 700 Mbps and a ping of 1 ms. With VPN activated and server in Nuremberg, it increases to 22 ms and the throughput drops to 220 Mbps. On the notebook, the ping is 3 ms, the speed is 530 Mbps and with VPN at 24 ms and 200 Mbps. On my smartphone in the WLAN at home, I measure a ping of 2 ms and a download speed of 470 Mbps. With VPN activated, it's 22 ms at 140 Mbps.

The input lag depends on many things and also varies from game to game. Nevertheless, the 1080p stream of Stadia already shows that the delay is significantly higher than in local games. However, there are only a few drawbacks if you use WLAN. At least at this resolution. Surprisingly, I measured the least lag on the Pixel of all the Stadia tests. It's possible that the stream requires less bandwidth there because fewer details are visible on the small display anyway.

At least the loading times with Stadia tend to be shorter than with the version installed on the PC. For me, "Destiny 2" takes 1:50 minutes from clicking the start button until I can start playing, whereas with Stadia it is playable after just 1:27 minutes.

Conclusion: A dream with many limitations

Is Google Stadia worthwhile for the Swiss? No. Even where it is officially available, I would wait. It works surprisingly well despite the VPN, but as long as you have a halfway decent PC or console, there's no reason to pay for Stadia. The input delay for the picture is still surprisingly low. You'll notice it more with the sound, but it didn't really bother me. The picture quality, on the other hand, is more painful. Google has made big claims that Stadia is as fast as the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X combined. You can't see any of that yet. The drop in quality is less noticeable on smaller displays and less critical eyes may not even notice it. However, anyone who knows what a game looks like with maximum details will notice the difference immediately.

The fact that you only have to open a browser tab and can start playing in a few seconds is still a fascinating idea. Google keeps this promise. And if the range of games were larger or it worked like Netflix, we could talk about it. As it is, you have 22 games at your disposal that are either slightly older and/or more expensive than on other platforms and perform worse.

The launch of Stadia is going badly. To be honest, I think it's cheeky to unleash something so unfinished on humanity and demand money for it. Google would have done well to package the whole thing as a beta. But that doesn't mean it's a failure. The potential seems to be there and I'm excited to see how the service develops.

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Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur. more

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