Google has revealed Stadia’s internet speed requirements

Google Stadia is unquestionably the future of gaming -- on demand, instantaneous, the latest and greatest titles playable on just about any device. However, as impressive as Google’s unveiling of Stadia was, it left a lot of people wondering what sort of connectivity is required to deliver some of the stunning graphics on display. It turns out gamers will need some pretty substantial bandwidth to keep things running smoothly after early testing revealed a somewhat laggy experience.

Speaking to Kotaku, Stadia boss Phil Harrison revealed that for games to be fully functional in 4K at 60 fps, a minimum connection speed of 30 Mbps is recommended. To enjoy buffer and lag-free 1080p games at 60 fps, a connection speed of 25 Mbp is considered optimal. That said, Google’s servers can deliver this performance with lower bandwidth, but will also adjust resolution as necessary in order to maintain a connection.

Harrison also confirmed that to play with Google Stadia on a TV, a Google Chromecast is required as is a new Stadia controller. Gamers, however, can use a regular USB controller when playing using a PC. Asked whether this will be another Google platform that gets killed off, Harrison indicated that Google is taking this effort very seriously with thousands of people working across its YouTube and technical infrastructure platforms to make Stadia a reality.