It's time for another little roundup of happenings around Google Stadia, the Linux-powered game streaming service.
Firstly, for anyone who does have the Founder/Premier Edition or were sent a Buddy Pass, the Pro games for February have been announced. At this point, it does seem like Google are running out of Steam as they're giving away their own exclusive GYLT and Metro Exodus. Samurai Shodown and Rise of the Tomb Raider for Pro ends January 31, so you need to claim them before that date to keep them with your subscription. Google did also announce new Pro deals here.
Google also did an official "Stadia Savepoint" news post on the official Google blog, going over what they've been doing but there's nothing new there since they already announced the big stuff like 120 games coming to Stadia across this year including some timed-exclusives.
The problem right now though, is that people really are already losing their patience with Google and the Stadia team. It's been well over a month since a new game released on it, they've not talked about Stadia Base lately for people to know when their friends can also join them and try it out and there's an increasing amount of posts complaining on their official Reddit like this massively upvoted post.
My own subscription to Stadia Pro ends on February 21 and right now, nothing is pulling me in to think that I should renew this. The ability to play Destiny 2 on any Linux machine with a Chromium browser is nice but it's really not that big a pull to keep an active monthly subscription for. GYLT is definitely interesting, especially since it's a Stadia exclusive but again—not worth keeping a subscription for.
Considering how stale Stadia already feels, how slow they've been to build it up and how Founders/Premier were basically Beta testers, Google should really extend everyone's Pro until they set a date for Stadia Base. That would be a small but worthwhile gesture. Otherwise, I think they might be shocked at how many let their sub lapse like me.
If you missed it, the latest version of the Unity game engine now supports building for Stadia - including the special features like State Share and Stream Connect.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: GuestPeople losing patience with what is basically and early access product. The service hasn't even rolled out to everyone yet and people are whining. This is why gamers get the reputation they do.Being a little hyperbolic there aren't we? This isn't whining, this is Google being bad at communicating. People didn't buy into an Early Access/Beta test. I think just throwing out the valid complaints about how the service is doing as "whining" and "gamers being gamers" is pretty ridiculous.
Quoting: GuestI would be willing to bet cash that there will be new games added to coincide with the actual release of the service for anyone to sign up.Well, duh. You would hope so.
Quoting: Liam DaweBeing a little hyperbolic there aren't we? This isn't whining, this is Google being bad at communicating.
Just with calling it early access or beta or something, people would have been way more happy I think...
In my eyes, that really is "whining." Because in my eyes, many things are seen in a wrong light and a perceived situation becomes reality.
This Reddit article gets to the heart of the matter:
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/ev97sk/stadia_community_culture_a_refresher_and_looking/
The bottom line is that we are well placed with what Stadia has already delivered.
So I'm not going to join this choir of naysayers. I'll put things in a different order and look forward to the things that are still to come.
And I encourage everyone to see for themselves. If you look at it you see the real shine and not just the black patina that is on the outside because of all the whining.
Last edited by KuJo on 29 January 2020 at 11:50 am UTC
;P
Quoting: KuJoGuys, the service is not even 90 days old!The problem lies with Google themselves, and people willing to look at how Google actually behaves now and how they did in the past figured that out by now.
In my eyes, that really is "whining." Because in my eyes, many things are seen in a wrong light and a perceived situation becomes reality.
And I encourage everyone to see for themselves. If you look at it you see the real shine and not just the black patina that is on the outside because of all the whining.
Everybody (except Google, I guess) knows by now the service was started almost a year too early. Google had no need to push this thing out when they did - and they did it anyway.
This project has all the same markings as all the other failed Google projects from Google Plus, to Hangouts, to Glasses, to...
And where did all of those projects end up? Abandoned. And those are just the most famous ones.
Which is extremely likely the same fate that awaits Stadia.
Anyone wanting to spend money on Stadia - or rather, single games on Stadia - should know that they are spending money on something that might just cease to be usable based on how Google "feels" about it.
And since Stadia is (and rightfully so) getting mostly negative press and reactions by now, the chances of Google wanting to potentially sink even more resources aren't exactly high.
Google is quite simply the last company one should put their faith in when it comes to struggling projects.
They shoot out ideas and see what sticks and what doesn't. And Stadia clearly isn't very sticky.
That has nothing to do with whining, I sure wish the situation was different, it is just an accurate analysis of the situation. Spending money on it right now is just not a good idea.
And the reactions Stadia gets are also partly so sour because all of this would have been perfectly avoidable. This sinking ship situation was entirely unnecessary - and that does not inspire confidence, either.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 29 January 2020 at 12:36 pm UTC
SirLootALot Jan 29, 2020
Why is everybody whining?!
If it isn't, if people find it uncompelling and various elements that would make it so fail to materialize with little communication about how that situation is changing, I'm afraid I don't have a ton of sympathy like I would if it was a couple of struggling indie programmers making something.
Everyone: No.
Google 2020: <surprised_pikachu.jpg>
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