Google Stadia users can now enjoy 4K streaming via the web, 9to5Google reported today, instead of having to rely on the dedicated Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle.
Limiting 4K visuals to the Chromecast Ultra was part of Stadia's less-than-complete launch. The service debuted in November 2019 without several key features, support for most hardware or even parity between devices with streaming performance.
Stadia's performance varies based on the user's internet connection, so not everyone will be able to stream with 4K visuals over the web, but at least now the supposedly hardware-agnostic platform is a bit closer to cross-device parity.
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9to5Google said that Stadia offered 4K visuals as an option even on "OK" or "Good" connections even though it's supposed to require an "Excellent" connection. It's not clear if that's by accident or if Google overestimated 4K streaming's requirements.
The platform's half-baked nature remains apparent, though, in that 4K streaming can only be enabled via Stadia's mobile apps. We doubt that's how most Stadia users would expect to change a setting affecting the performance of web-based streaming.
Google hadn't officially announced 4K streaming on the web at time of this writing. Hopefully the company offers more details via Stadia's blog sooner than later.
