Google Stadia launch review: Gaming’s “future” looks rough in the present

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  Embossed text, 'cause it's fancy. [credit: Kyle Orland ]

Streaming is the future of gaming. You can ask practically anyone, as long as that "anyone" is involved in selling games.

Ask Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, who said in May that "the streaming era is upon us" (convenient for him, since Sony has been streaming games since 2014). Ask Microsoft, which is testing streaming through its xCloud service and plans to add the feature to its regular game offerings next year. Ask the CEOs of Ubisoft and Activision, both of whom seem to think traditional game downloads and discs will be a thing of the past in a few years' time.

(Just don't ask OnLive, whose spectacular implosion in 2015 only proved that streaming wasn't the past of gaming.)

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