Google Stadia

Agreed, and I think it goes deeper than that. It seems to me like this whole mess is a result of the tension between two sides of Google's corporate culture. Google is the epitome of the tech startup made good; everyone who comes up with an idea for an app wants to be the next Google. Even Google itself is interested in finding the next big thing, and they have the resources to throw money at a promising idea and see if it sticks. Heck, Alphabet now has an entire corporate division devoted to funding such things.

At the same time, that very success has made Google one of the largest companies in the world, with all the inertia and need to hold onto what they have of any huge corporation. Especially if that corporation grew so quickly that many of their executives didn't grow with it, but were hired away from established behemoths where they learned to be conservative (in a corporate sense).

This makes Google willing to fund offbeat ideas, sometimes grandly, but less willing to continue authorizing large expenditures if they don't see immediate returns, even if, as in the case of tech like Stadia, what the venture really needs is time to grow and mature.

Also, shareholders. They want their short-term profit and they want it now.

Microsoft was also making a genuine effort. Investing in original titles for their platform.

When asked about Cyberpunk sales on Stadia, CDPR's CEO responded by laughing nervously. His official statement doesn't specify much but the numbers probably suck based on common sense.

Google Stadia now has a search bar. After over a year active.

In other news, fish in barrels are not particularly good at avoiding bullets.

Wow, I'm sure that'll be useful to the people still using Stadia.

All two of them.

Edited by lbssb on Apr 28th 2021 at 12:59:35 PM

Honestly, it's kind of funny how hard Stadia is failing. The pandemic and PS5 shortages should have been a huge boon for the platform, yet it's made no real dent in the industry and has consistently gotten bad PR.

I think because most people aren’t interested in streaming games yet.

But yeah it is odd considering that the PS 5 and Series X are experiencing shortages.

However, this isn’t surprising with the pandemic forcing a lot of people to stay home because some of those people became unemployed, so they simply would not have the money to spend on Stadia.

The popularity of Xbox Game Pass (18 million subscribers) and Playstation Now (2.2 million) argue against people not being interested in streaming games.

Then it’s probably because a lot of gamers don’t wanna go outside the main trio of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

But I think a lot of people being unemployed last year didn’t help Stadia either.m

I completely forgot about Xbox Game Pass and PS Now. I guess it might be because those are bonuses to the platforms and aren’t the only way to play games on those platforms?

Edited by powerpuffbats on Apr 28th 2021 at 6:20:14 AM

Honestly, it's kind of funny how hard Stadia is failing. The pandemic and PS 5 shortages should have been a huge boon for the platform, yet it's made no real dent in the industry and has consistently gotten bad PR.

The Stadia's business model is just kinda shit, and it's ability to play next-gen games isn't much of a selling point when there's so few of them worth playing

But I think a lot of people being unemployed last year didn’t help Stadia either.

2020 was great for the games industry. The Stadia continuing to flop is on it

Then it’s probably because a lot of gamers don’t wanna go outside the main trio of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

For streaming, you kinda have to stick with them. No one else has the power to keep publishers in line

Edited by Hylarn on Apr 28th 2021 at 4:22:26 AM

Ah, okay. Then yes, it is odd that Stadia failed when it had the most amount of luck to succeed.

Luck doesn't mean much when you don't have the ability to capitalize on the chances given.

Edited by Blueace on Apr 28th 2021 at 7:48:11 AM

I don't know about PSNow, but Game Pass isn't streaming. You download the games to your system.

PS Now is mostly streaming, but you do have the option to download certain games.

Edited by lbssb on Apr 28th 2021 at 4:49:05 AM

Game Pass has streaming as an option but it is far from the main selling point of the service. It's there to act as the Netflix of games in terms of library.

Also, 2.2 million subscribers for PS Now isn't that many in the grand scheme of things. Stadia might actually have more users than that based on what little info we've gotten. Plus people seem to constantly complain about PS Now and its latency.

While Stadia's failure can largely be chalked up to Google not knowing what they're doing, I do believe it's a sign that game streaming is probably not viable as a standalone service.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 28th 2021 at 5:18:10 AM

Stadia is largely failing because of its business model.

A Netflix-style service, where you play a flat monthly fee and can stream every game to your heart's content, is a pretty decent idea. Granted, unless you work in technology and social media journalism and live in southern California, you won't have a connection or a computer fast enough to get the best experience, but if you're willing to play at the lower end of HD, it's workable.

Stadia requires you to buy each game individually, but you can only stream them. There is no reason at all to do this when every other store lets you download your games directly to your hard drive, so there's no latency. Stadia is thus a system without any of the advantages of either local storage or streaming.

Also how does Google of all companies not include a search bar? I know they're an advertising company, but search is how they deliver ads, for crying out loud!

The problem for Stadia is that most AAA Publishers are never going to agree to a Netflix style deal. Why would they want a tiny slice of a (probably less than the cost of a full price game per month) amount, rather than the full cost of a sale? Heck, it's the same problem Netflix itself has "Why should I give you money, when I can just have my own stuff and get all the money directly" and it's why we got 90 billion subscription services and now if you want to subscribe to everything it'll cost you more than what a cable subscription did in the old days. No one's going to agree to a subscription service where they share income. If it were to ever be successful, all the developers would jump ship and make their own streaming service where they get your monthly money. Even Nvidia's own streaming platform is facing similar issues. You're not gonna get publishers' buy in unless you can convince them they'll make as much money or more than they'd make from sales.

Yeah that’s the unfortunate thing about the streaming future. Companies want their own slice of the money pie instead of sharing it. Which sucks because now it’s extremely expensive to have everything.

And that’s just streaming services, it’s straight up impossible to make gaming be a streaming service as the main thing as opposed to a bonus like Game Pass or PS Now or even Nintendo Switch Online for NES and SNES games. All because publishers want their own piece as opposed to just sharing the pie with others.

Edited by powerpuffbats on Apr 29th 2021 at 9:29:11 AM

Stadia VP and product head John Justice has left Google.

Justice was apparently one of the main faces of the service for interviews and only joined Google in 2019.

Edited by Karxrida on May 4th 2021 at 9:15:21 AM

Ironically the Greed of companies is preventing the Greed of Other Companies from completely taking away every last shred of ownership of our games we have.

The wonders of the free market.

During the Apple vs. Epic case, Tim Sweeney was asked about whether Stadia was still operating. He said it's been significantly scaled down since launch.

‘Journey to the Savage Planet’ developers reform after Google shut them down

Typhoon was the studio behind "Journey to the Savage Planet". formed by Farcry 4's director and Arkham Knight's Producer. They got bought by google who planed to use them as a stadia game studio, then closed them down. They've since reformed as an indy again, and managed to regain Savage Planet's IP.

Nice. It will be hilarious if Journey becomes a massive hit.