If you haven’t heard the news from Google’s Stadia conference, one of the first games announced for the platform is idSoftware’s Doom Eternal. idSoftware’s own Marty Stratton took to the stage to make the announcement.
Now, while we already knew about the games’ existence, the announcement of Doom Eternal coming to Stadia is quite new. As is the news that the game will run at 4K, 60 frames per second. Along with HDR support, to sweeten the deal. All of which is thanks to AMD’s Vulkan API, which has been shown to work wonders for idSoftware’s idTech 6 game engine. I suspect that idTech 7, which powers Doom Eternal will fare just the same.
Of course, this is all fine and exciting news. However, we need to keep in mind that since we’re dealing with gaming as a service or GaaS, we need to factor in a few things. Input latency, which several people have already reported is an issue for Stadia. Even in a controlled environment at GDC 2019, concerns of this were very evident. On top of this, bandwidth is another major concern. While 4K and HDR sound nice, these are very hefty when it comes to bandwidth and easily be out of reach for those with bad connections or those who lack the requirements.
Yes, there are requirements for Google’s Stadia, despite them not making that very clear during the conference. A quite glance at the Stadia website shows that your gameplay experience will vary depending on your connection. If that wasn’t already obvious, at least they mention this on the website.
4K HDR at 60 FPS are dependent on your bandwidth. Gameplay experience may vary based on quality of internet connection
Doom Eternal is slated for a 2019 release date, we just don’t know when it is. Expect to hear more about Doom Eternal and Google Stadia at E3 2019.
