When it first arrived, Google Stadia joined an already crowded console scene but stood out on its own for being one of the first for trying to merge gaming with streaming. Early adopters were met with some hiccups. That is to be expected with any launch. However, the Stadia has been a pleasant surprise for some while it “still isn’t there quite yet” for others. To be real, the promise of the Stadia was basically that it would act as a kind of a “Netflix for video games”.

In theory, we were going to get access to a triple-A library of titles and even new games would be added to this list. Is this what we’re getting?

Yes and no, and I know that isn’t a very specific answer. You see, it’s hard to pin down where the Stadia is going and what its strengths are. The complaints about lag in fighting games and others is a real thing and that’s a dealbreaker for many gamers.

Given the rise of competitive gaming, that’s a problem that needs to be overcome and quickly for the Stadia to be taken seriously. But games that don’t rely on blazing fast internet speed or lightning response times can still be enjoyable on the Stadia.

In fact, the biggest promise here is Stadia’s “go anywhere” gaming. If Google can somehow lock this down and make the Stadia a truly seamless experience between console, tablet, and phone then we’ve got something really powerful here.

As it stands now, everything is still relatively conceptual if that is even possible for a console that is already on sale right now.

While the Stadia has a great library of available games, there does seem to be a lot of industry resistance to it. One of the more recent examples of this is that the most-anticipated title of 2020, Cyberpunk 2077, won’t be releasing on the Stadia until after it has come out for console and PC.

That’s a pretty big blow because, in theory, the availability of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia on day one would be a pretty deal.

Another nagging issue that we don’t blame Google for nor do we know how the company is going to solve is the fact that, unlike Netflix, you actually have to pay to play these games.

You don’t get to just browse through a library of the best games currently out there and play whatever you want. If that were the case, then Stadia’s lag and other issues would be the tiniest of concerns and we doubt any of us would be able to log on to the service or get a console because it would be so popular. As it stands now, Stadia is a bridge between the past and the future.

The legacy elements of the former are what is holding it back. Don’t get us wrong, we understand why Stadia has to charge for triple-A titles and sell them just like any other console’s digital store would. It’s just that it kills much of the buzz and novelty of the console.

The result is something that shines a lens on the console and its many flaws. Still, Stadia has promise and it will be fun to see what Google does with it in the future.