Google addresses Stadia's 4K 60fps controversy

Google’s Stadia launched last week, and it’s been kinda, sorta, controversial. At best it’s beta quality, but one thing stood out, even with that caveat. The firm promised 4K 60fps for all Stadia games and didn’t quite deliver. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny were found to play at FullHD/FullHD+ and 30fps, a far cry from what was initially promised.

Google shared the following statement to 9to5Google, explaining that it was developer dependent:

Stadia streams at 4K… 60 FPS… and that includes all aspects of our graphics pipeline from game to screen: GPU, encoder, and Chromecast Ultra all outputting at 4K to 4K TVs, with the appropriate internet connection. Developers making Stadia games work hard to deliver the best streaming experience for every game. Like you see on all platforms, this includes a variety of techniques to achieve the best overall quality. We give developers the freedom of how to achieve the best image quality and frame rate on Stadia and we are impressed with what they have been able to achieve for day one. We expect that many developers can, and in most cases will, continue to improve their games on Stadia. And because Stadia lives in our data centers, developers are able to innovate quickly while delivering even better experiences directly to you without the need for game patches or downloads.

In other words, don’t look at us — developers have the tools, they should use them. If Google can convince developers that after they build for Stadia, users will come, the Stadia dream may come to life. But with developers, users and reviewers snubbing Stadia, at least for now, that’s a tall order.