Stay or die? Stadia is Google’s stab at the cloud gaming dilemma

The idea of gaming fully over IP, without any local expensive hardware aside from a controller and a screen, has remained exactly that – a concept – despite the enormous success of online gaming in general. Sony has had a few cracks at the nut with OnLive, PlayStation Now and Gaikai, as has Microsoft with project xCloud, all ultimately seeing lower than expected uptake. Google is the latest to chance its arm, unveiling its upcoming cloud gaming service Stadia – for which Google has been oozing unnerving levels of confidence given the size of the task ahead. Stadia’s unveiling sent latency connoisseurs into meltdown on Twitter and elsewhere, all of whom accepted indisputably that streaming games is the future, all…