Google Stadia's State Share Is the Streaming Service's Most Ambitious Idea Yet - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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Capturing game footage and sharing it online with friends was once a feature that would often require an expensive capture card. However, many modern consoles ship with the ability to record gameplay and share it online by default, letting memories and experiences be shared easier than ever. What if there was another way those experiences could be shared, beyond just normal game footage and recordings? What if players could share their actual gameplay without going through the process of sending out their save files?

Google Stadia aims to do just that using a feature that they call State Share. The name connects to a technical term when talking about video games, with a "state" being best described as the arrangement of the game's code at any given moment. According to Stadia product manager Catherine Hsiao, State Share will allow players to save certain elements of their gameplay along-side a video capture, allowing others to play the same section of a game that the video showcases.

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State Share is a new idea in the world of gameplay sharing and can be somewhat difficult to fully understand. The best way to describe it is by using one of the games it will be compatible with, the upcoming HITMAN 3, as an example. If a player shares a recording of how they completed a mission on a certain level, Google Stadia's State Share feature will save that player's starting location, loadout, objectives and difficulty settings along-side the gameplay recording. This means that anyone who watches that gameplay footage can load up the state that's been saved to the footage and play the level using those very same options.

State Share will only be available to use with the HITMAN trilogy to start, though the feature is expected to come to other games on the system. State Share is an incredibly ambitious idea that could possibly change how people share gameplay. This feature has a lot of promise, even if its current iteration is both limited and fairly simple. The promise from Stadia's product manager of further exploration of the idea is certainly good news.

The HITMAN games have actually featured something similar to State Share for a while, through its challenge mode. Players have been able to set specific item requirements and goals for other players to try and complete, though being able to create these challenges based on a current playthrough is certainly a simpler approach. The big reason to keep an eye on State Share isn't because of what it currently can do. The importance of the feature is what it could become in the future.

In a community blog interview, Catherine Hsiao points out that the main goal of State Share is to give players new ways to interact with sharable content. State Share's capabilities will depend on how games support it, such as what gameplay elements can be captured and saved. Platformers and action games, for example, could allow people to take control of an NPC or as a second character to try and assist (or hinder) the capture of the game footage with a particular boss fight or level, in a sort of offline co-op kind of way.

One of State Share's main appeals is how it could be used for the speedrunning and streaming communities. Speedrunners could use this feature to share unique speedrunning challenges for certain missions in the HITMAN games whilst streamers could play viewer-created challenges on stream. However, it's questionable whether or not this feature will see serious use in the speedrunning community due to Stadia's online-only game streaming impacting performance. Due to the unpredictable nature of online connections, a drop in stability could drastically affect a speedrunner's time, making the Stadia a poor choice for speedruns.

One of the biggest limitations with State Share is that it's only available on the Stadia, which has been plagued by an underwhelming launch, mistargeted marketing and poor sales. That doesn't mean the ideas that the Stadia begins to explore aren't worth paying attention to, as other console manufacturers may adopt similar features moving forward. State Share's unique idea is really promising, especially for future features that may take on a similar concept.

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About The Author

Jacob Creswell (157 Articles Published)

A writer for CBR since September 2020, Jacob Creswell is a life long writer and gamer. Has written for both local and global publications. Lover of Animal Crossing, Undertale, Team Fortress 2, and a little professional wrestling on the side. Often can be found doing way more research than needed for his video game theories. Can also be found on his Twitter, @Creeology98