Found the nail for the Stadia coffin, its name is Comcast

Well before Google launched Stadia, the naysayers had a variety of reasons why it simply wouldn't work.  Latency and lag, data caps, business model, longevity, those and more were paraded out, often with an air of "let this thing crash quickly, so we can get back to our preferred PC/game system reporting."  I, on the other hand, took the side of "If anybody can do it, Google can", envisioned the possibilities their setup would enable, and decided it would be worth at least giving it a shot.

My first month with Stadia was basically all I could ask for, but not without some minor issues.  In fact, what started out as "might as well play some Destiny 2, since I've basically paid for it" basically turned into "yeah, I could play some Warframe, but I'd rather be playing Destiny 2 right now."  All was rosy, until I opened up my email on the day after Christmas.

Waiting in my inbox was an automatic notification that, at some point on Christmas, I had crossed the 90% threshold towards my monthly 1TB data cap.  Now, Comcast set that up back in 2015, ostensibly to rein in bitorrenters, but it also just so happens to limit the amount of streaming a household could do if they, say, were cutting cable TV out of their lives.  Further, while their online documentation of this cap goes on and on about "fairness", their pricing scheme is anything but.  Somehow, they can provide you 1TB (1024GB) of data per month for under $70, but, if you cross that arbitrary line, they will charge you $10 per 50GB thereafter, up to $200... do the math, and that's nearly three times more expensive than your data up to the cap, assuming you use it all each month.  Of course, you can avoid this issue by paying for the unlimited option... which just so happens to bring your Internet bill up to what you would have been paying for internet and cable to begin with.

Luckily, Comcast gives you the first two months of overages for free, so I decided to take advantage of that fact to run an experiment.  Upon receiving the 90% notification, I dropped my Stadia data rate to the "balanced" plan (1080p streaming).  The end result:  I only exceeded my data cap by 68GB, which, except for Comcast's forbearance, would have jacked my monthly bill by $20.  Doing some math, it appears that my "break-even" point for switching between 4K Stadia and 1080p Stadia is a bit over 70% of the data cap (or just over 19 days through a 31-day month)... so, for January, I'm going to try that and see where it gets me.

Unfortunately, even if that works, I just can't see myself switching back and forth, running the razor edge of having to give Comcast more money on any given month.  If I wanted 1080p streaming, I've got a PC with loads of games and a streaming-capable TV already.  Beyond that, I know that I'm an odd case in that I'm a bachelor who's a moderate gamer that does a fair bit of reading and some over-the-air TV viewing as well.  I could manage the data jump Stadia brings about, but a multi-member household, especially one with kids, would blow their cap in no time, even at the "balanced" data rate.  So, basically, the technology's great, but, short of Google somehow convincing Comcast (and other ISPs) to work against their perceived interests, I think you can pretty well write off Stadia at this point... I know I fully intend to cancel my subscription before my trial expires in February.