Streaming video games is a very compelling concept. Instead of investing in an expensive console or PC, you subscribe to a service that lets you access hardware that's powerful enough to run the games you want to play, streamed over the internet to whatever device you want. We've watched the idea grow since the first days of the now defunct OnLive, and as internet connections and Wi-Fi technologies have become faster, it's only improved. Now Google is getting in on the action with Stadia, a subscription service that lets you play console- and PC-quality games on your phone, in a Chrome browser tab, or on your TV with a Google Chromecast Ultra.

Google Stadia is impressive from a technical standpoint, especially when used on a phone or in a browser. However, its $69 controller currently can't function wirelessly without considerable input lag, and that makes the TV gaming experience rough. Stadia's launch library is also very small, it requires buying each game individually, and it offers no guarantees about whether the game you buy will still exist in any form if Google cancels Stadia. These are significant issues that make it look much less appealing than other streaming game services like Nvidia GeForce Now or PlayStation Now.

The Price of Streaming

The Google Stadia Premiere Edition is available for $129 and includes a Stadia controller, a Google Chromecast Ultra, and three months of Stadia Pro. Individual Stadia controllers can be purchased for $69 each. To review Stadia, Google sent us the Stadia Premiere Edition, a Pixel 3a XL phone, an unbranded phone clip that connects to the controller, and a short USB-C cable.

Currently, Google Stadia is available only with a $9.99 per month Stadia Pro subscription, though a free Stadia Base membership level will be available next year. Stadia Pro supports streaming games at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, with 5.1-channel surround sound. It also includes Destiny 2: The Collection, and will receive other games released on a regular basis. Stadia Base will support streaming at up to 1080p60 and will not include any games, though both memberships let you individually buy games on Stadia.

This is where we start to encounter some potential problems. As a purely streaming service, Stadia still requires you to buy most games you play, and it appears those games will be offered at full retail price (though Stadia Pro members will get some discounts). Purchasing a game on Stadia makes it only available on Stadia, which means its availability and thus your ownership and ability to play the game is completely dependent on Stadia remaining available as a service. There is no way to download or transfer a game purchased on Stadia, or otherwise preserve it in the event Google stops supporting the service. Considering Google's history of cancelled products (156 services at last count, according to killedbygoogle.com), that's a concern for anyone willing to drop up to $60 on a game.

This is a potential issue with any streaming game service, but others temper those fears with broader media support or a robust library of games available as part of a subscription. PlayStation Now provides hundreds of games available to stream or download to your PlayStation 4 for the same monthly price as Stadia Pro. GeForce Now also offers a handful of games as part of membership, and it lets you import many other games you might already own on Steam to your account so you can play them through the service without buying them again. Shadow works with any digital game store, since it simply provides remote access to a Windows 10 PC. Google Stadia currently offers no such concessions.

The more immediate problem with buying games on Stadia is that there are so few of them. The service is launching with only 22 games, including Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2, Destiny 2: The Collection, Farming Simulator 2019, Final Fantasy XV, Footbal Manager 2020, Gylt, Just Dance 2020, Kine, Metro Exodus, Mortal Kombat 11, NBA2K20, Rage 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Red Dead Redemption 2, Samurai Shodown, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Thumper, Tomb Raider 2013, Trials Rising, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. This list is varied across different genres and includes some very popular titles, but it's still a small selection, and of all of the games, only Gylt is exclusive to Stadia. Borderlands 3, Darksiders Genesis, Dragon Ball: Xenoverse, and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint are expected by the end of the year, but that still only brings the total to 26 titles.

How to Play

You can play games on Stadia in a variety of ways. To start, you can use your compatible phone. For Android, Stadia is available on the Pixel 4, 3, 3a, and 2 phones. You can't play on non-Google Android phones yet, but compatibility will be expanded some time next year. So, if you're a Samsung, LG, OnePlus, or any other Android phone user, you're out of luck until next year. In addition, Android tablets aren't currently supported. Stadia will eventually work with iOS 11 (or later) devices, but it isn't compatible at launch.

You can also play on any computer with a current version of Chrome. This includes Chromebooks, making Stadia very appealing for Chromebook users who want to play games without being limited to iffy Android app implementation. The service works in any Chrome tab.

Finally, you can play on your TV, through a Chromecast Ultra. Plug the Chromecast into your TV, set it up, pair your Stadia controller with it, then pair it with your Stadia account through the Stadia app. Once that's done, the Chromecast Ultra works like a microconsole, powering up and entering the Stadia menu when you turn the Stadia controller on. It should be noted that Stadia doesn't work with any other Chromecast device.

Once you've decided on the platforms you want to use, you need to meet some minimum requirements. Streaming games requires a fast internet connection—Google recommends at least 10Mbps. Besides the speed requirements, Stadia has some regional limitations. It's available in the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Puerto Rico, and most of Western Europe. It isn't available in Hawaii or Guam, or any other country outside of Europe.

You also need some form of controller. The Stadia controller works on all Stadia-compatible devices, but you can also use a DualShock 4, Xbox Wireless Controller, or a few other compatible gamepads with your phone, tablet, PC, or Chromebook (I tested the service with an 8Bitdo SN30 Pro+ and it worked quite well). You can also use a mouse and keyboard with your PC or Chromebook. If you're using a Chromecast Ultra, however, you specifically need the Stadia controller.

Stadia Controller

The Stadia controller takes design ideas from all three major game consoles. It looks like a slightly more plump Xbox One controller, shaped like rounded trapezoid with thick grips extending from the bottom left and right. The layout is classic PlayStation, with dual analog sticks parallel to each other, a direction pad to the upper left of the left analog stick, and Xbox-style A/B/X/Y buttons to the upper right of the right stick. Taking a cue from the Nintendo Switch, four small function buttons sit between the direction pad and face buttons: Menu, Options, Capture, and Google Assistant. A larger Stadia button sits below them, between the analog sticks. Trigger and bumper button combinations sit on the top left and right corners of the controller.

It comes in black, white, or a "wasabi" mint, with the ball joints under the analog sticks respectively orange, white, and electric yellow.

A 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the bottom edge of the controller, between the grips. Below it, on the underside of the gamepad, sits a pinhole mic for using Google Assistant. A USB-C port on the top edge of the controller lets you charge the built-in battery, or connect the gamepad to your phone, tablet, Chromebook, or PC. Google Assistant will be activated after launch, so we haven't yet had a chance to test it.

The controller itself feels very good. It's solid, the buttons and sticks are responsive, the triggers are springy, and the direction pad is nice and clicky. I was worried at first when Google revealed the controller, because its rounded design reminded me of the awful Ouya gamepad. My fears were unfounded, and this controller feels just as sturdy as any console's first-party model.

The Stadia controller is wireless, but only when paired with a Google Chromecast Ultra. This is a problem, because the Chromecast Ultra offers the worst gameplay experience of all the ways to access Stadia, as I will explain below.

If you want to use the controller with your phone, tablet, Chromebook, or PC, you need to use a cable; Stadia currently has no method of pairing the controller wirelessly with anything besides a Chromecast Ultra. Google sent us a phone clip and a short USB-C-to-USB-C cable for testing, but if you're just buying the controller or Premiere Edition and want to play Stadia on your phone, you'll have to supply your own USB-C-to-USB-C cable or the appropriate USB-C adapter for your mobile device.

Google plans to add wireless support for the Stadia controller on other devices besides the Chromecast Ultra in early 2020. If you use a compatible Bluetooth controller to play games on Stadia, they currently work wirelessly.

Streaming Performance

I tested Stadia in multiple use cases, all using the Stadia controller. I played games on a Pixel 3a XL phone connected to a Fios network over Wi-Fi, in a Chrome tab on a PC connected to a corporate network, in a Chrome tab on a different PC connected to my home Fios network, and on a TV with a Chromecast Ultra connected to a Fios network both over Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I played several games on Stadia through these methods, primarily Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11, but also Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Gylt.

Stadia on a smartphone with a good 5GHz Wi-Fi connection is fantastic. Controls felt responsive and graphics looked sharp on every game I tested. Playing Destiny 2 on a small screen is a particularly unique experience, and the fact that aiming was spot-on, with no discernible input lag, and the action looked and sounded consistently crisp is downright impressive.

Stadia in a Chrome window is also very good. On both a gaming laptop and a much more modest office-issued laptop, Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 play very well. I had no issues with sluggish controls when shooting or performing combos. The games don't look quite as sharp in Chrome as they do on a phone, though. Of course, a picture will naturally look sharper when you fit about the same number of pixels into a much smaller space, like a six-inch phone screen instead of a 27-inch computer monitor.

Screen differences aside, however, games simply don't look quite as sharp streaming over Stadia as opposed to playing a local version of the same title on the same hardware. The reason for this seems to be Stadia prioritizing input over graphical fidelity when streaming; in Destiny I saw a few hiccups where details dropped for a moment, but my controls stayed responsive. This is how Stadia should work, though, since games feeling good to play is far more important than games looking good. And neither Destiny 2 nor Mortal Kombat 11 look bad in Chrome tabs, just not as sharp as playing the same title locally.

Playing games on a TV through a Chromecast Ultra is where Stadia falls apart. It's also the only situation where you can play with the controller completely wirelessly, and I suspect those two facts are related. Controls feel extremely sluggish, lagging nearly a second in some cases. This is irritating when simply walking around or navigating a menu in a game, but when aiming at enemies or trying to time blocks in a fight, it renders the game unplayable. These problems remained when I plugged the Chromecast directly into our Fios test network over Ethernet.

I believe the input lag between the controller and Stadia when playing through a Chromecast Ultra is due to the wireless connection between the controller and the Chromecast itself. With every other available Stadia setup, the controller is connected to the Stadia device through a cable, so the entire process of streaming over the internet is performed through the phone or PC, with inputs sent through a fast wired connection. When playing with a Chromecast Ultra, the controller wirelessly syncs with the Chromecast, creating another network stepping point in the streaming process.

Graphical quality via the Chromecast Ultra is generally strong but can vary, and seems almost completely separate from the control lag. Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 look fairly clear, but occasionally experience a dip in detail or develop artifacts, similar to playing in a Chrome tab. Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks surprisingly excellent, with the High Resolution mode indeed pushing the game to what appears to be a sharp 4K, and the High Framerate mode looking like a very smooth 60 frames per second. As with the Tomb Raider games on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, you need to choose between those modes on Stadia; there is no catchall 4K60 mode.

Perhaps Google will be able to fix the lag with an update to the controller that optimizes the connection to the Chromecast, but for now, we can't recommend using Stadia to play games on a TV with a Chromecast Ultra. This also means that while the Stadia controller feels very good, we can't recommend the Premiere Edition unless you simply want a Chromecast Ultra for media streaming, completely separate from any Stadia gaming.

Not a Finished Product

Under the right conditions, Google's Stadia service provides streamed video games with crisp, smooth graphics and responsive controls. Those conditions are easy to access on your compatible smartphone and reliable in a Chrome tab, but not through the Chromecast Ultra. And even when working optimally, Stadia doesn't rise above the performance you can get with Shadow or GeForce Now. The potential for 4K60 is there, but don't expect to see it with any consistency.

Good game streaming on phones and in Chrome tabs would be enough to overlook the disappointing Chromecast Ultra experience if Stadia offered a compelling selection of games and good value for the price of the subscription. That isn't the case right now, with less than 30 games planned for the service by the end of the year, almost all of which you need to individually pay for. GeForce Now provides a subscription plan with a handful of free games and lets you access dozens of Steam titles you've already purchased. Shadow lets you install any game you already own on any Windows 10-compatible digital store to its virtual PC. And PlayStation Now offers unlimited access to hundreds of games. All three of these services, even Shadow's pricey $25/month subscription, represent far better values than Google Stadia.

For the most part, Stadia does what it claims to do. Its biggest problem is that it doesn't claim to do nearly enough. So if you really want to enjoy the streaming game experience (and you meet the bandwidth and geographic requirements for the services), consider spending $140 on a Shadow Ghost to use Shadow, or $150 on an Nvidia Shield TV to use GeForce Now. Or go the PlayStation route and subscribe to PlayStation Now to use on your PS4 or PC. For now, Stadia remains a work in progress.

Google Stadia 2.5 See It $129.00 at Google Store MSRP $9.99 Pros Excellent performance on compatible phones and in Chrome. Cons Significant input lag over Chromecast Ultra.

Limited wireless controller support.

Games must be purchased individually and are only accessible on Stadia.

Small launch library. View More The Bottom Line The Google Stadia streaming platform offers a high-quality gaming experience on your phone or PC, but gameplay lags on TV and the launch library and pricing structure are disappointing.

Best Gaming System Picks

Further Reading