Google Stadia lets you play someone else's screenshot

Google's Stadia cloud gaming service launched in November 2019 but hasn't become as popular as the search giant had hoped. Recent leaks indicate the service missed its target for both monthly active players by "hundreds of thousands." So far, Google hasn't really publicly released hard data about how many players Stadia has.

Play someone else's screenshot

Stadia does have some interesting features though. PC Gamer highlights Stadia's State Share feature -- it allows you to capture an interactive screenshot or video of your gameplay. State Share adds a link that allows other games to dive right into the screenshotted scene. Of course, this feature requires both players to own the game.

I'm not entirely convinced by Stadia yet. Despite having a fast internet connection, I get a lot of frame rate jitter in 4K, which makes me not want to play games on it. But there's no denying the technology is impressive, specifically the State Share feature. Take a screenshot or record a video clip and a URL is generated, which people can then click on to play the level you captured—providing they own the game themselves. Seeing a screenshot and not just looking at it, but diving inside it like some haunted painting, is an incredibly powerful concept that works amazingly well.

At the moment, only a limited number of Stadia titles support State Share. This includes PixelJunk Raiders and Hitman 3.