Google claims Stadia could overcome latency by predicting user inputs

Google VP of engineering Madj Bakar has suggested Stadia will offer a superior gaming experience than PCs and other local hardware in the near future.

“Ultimately, we think in a year or two we’ll have games that are running faster and feel more responsive in the cloud than they do locally, regardless of how powerful the local machine is,” Bakar told the latest issue of Edge magazine (via PCGamesN).

Bakar said Stadia will reduce potential lag using “negative latency” – a predicted latency buffer in which Stadia deploys lag mitigation measures such as rapidly increasing frames per second to lessen the delay between player input and display, or even predicting which button a player will press next.

Google Stadia will launch in November 2019 with over 30 games available to purchase on day one, including Red Dead Redemption 2.

Google recently confirmed plans to offer free Stadia platform trials “a few months” after launch, as well as its desire for all Stadia games to support cross-play and cross-progression.

Lots of people don’t realise Stadia online multiplayer is free, according to John Justice, Google VP and Stadia head of product.