Stadia, one year on: Better but still incomplete

Google launched Stadia, a streaming service that lets you play high-quality video games, exactly 12 months ago. The launch was met with a mixture of skepticism and disappointment. Was Stadia viable for people with an average-at-best internet connection? Would Google abandon it like Daydream, Reader and so many other services? These were perfectly valid questions. A year ago, it arrived without visible achievements, voice chat, 4K resolution on the web and most of the social features teased at the Game Developers' Conference, such as State Share and Crowd Play. The company has spent the last year adding features that fans were clamoring for at launch. The store has a broader selection of games and Stadia Pro, its subscription-based offering, has a better lineup of freebies, too. The service faces stiff competition, though, from rival offerings such as Microsoft's xCloud.