There has been a lot of fuss over the past week about the fact that DOOM Eternal won’t be running in 4K when it launches on Stadia. That’s a huge blow to Google, and it’s very much their problem to sort out the fact that they aren’t delivering on yet another promise to early adopters. With that said, I’m still pretty happy because it’s a DOOM game I can stream to any device I choose.
Streaming DOOM Eternal in 2020
DOOM Eternal launches on March 20, 2020, and it looks like it’s going to be incredible. The game is the sequel to DOOM 2016, which is a sort of reboot of the franchise whilst also kind of being a continuation of the DOOM games. It’s all pretty complicated, and doesn’t get any less so with Eternal, but it’s all good shooter fun. Since the first DOOM game there really hasn’t been anything better that shooting demons in the face with a shotgun so powerful it might blow up a building.
DOOM Eternal was one of the games that Stadia hung itself upon. A shining beacon in the future of game streaming. Stadia has a lot of good games available to stream, but DOOM Eternal is going to be a cut above the rest. Not only that, it’s going to simultaneously launch for the streaming service as well as every other platform. This is a big move for Stadia, and despite the smaller player base, I truly think that it will be a hit on the platforms regardless of the quality.
The real edge that DOOM Eternal on Stadia has isn’t 4K visuals, it’s the ability to play it anywhere. It I purchase the game for Stadia, I can take my Chromebook, a pretty underpowered computer, to the Chipping Norton branch of Caffe Nero, link it up to my phone for wi-fi, because the cafe’s network is abysmal, plug in my Stadia controller, and be playing DOOM Eternal with a superior cappuccino.
It’s not worthy getting hung up on the tiny details of a game on a specific service. You’ll always be disappointed. There are enough differences between PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, and those are basically identical. What I’m trying to say is, focus on the positive here. You can either be down about not having 4K DOOM Eternal streaming, or happy that you can disgust everyone in Caffe Nero with the grotesque visuals of the next DOOM game.
