In a move that is sure to raise plenty of eyebrows, and worry Stadia supporters, Google has announced they're shutting down SG&E (Stadia Games & Entertainment) and no longer doing first-party games.
They make it clear in the announcement that Stadia as a platform isn't going away, and they believe game streaming is "the future of this industry" and so they will "continue to invest in Stadia and its underlying platform to provide the best cloud gaming experience for our partners and the gaming community". It gets more interesting though, as Google said they will be expanding to "help game developers and publishers take advantage of our platform technology and deliver games directly to their players" and they will be working with partners who want a streaming solution.
Google clearly mention how costly it is to create big AAA games, and as Amazon have seen it doesn't always work out and burns a lot of money. Instead, the focus will be to "focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships" and on that note they mentioned that Jade Raymond has left Google now too.
Sounds like Google are going to be licensing the tech and hardware behind Stadia, while continuing to build up Stadia as a store itself. It makes a lot more sense, as big costly exclusives from Stadia for Stadia won't have enough of a pull to pay-off, whereas pulling in more and more 3rd party popular games will and would cost Google less to do. So, it is the smart move overall. The Stadia tech is good too, and it clearly works so they're doing what they do best in this way.
The thing is, it's another nail in the coffin of the idea Google sold it all on originally. The talk about these huge games that could only work in the cloud, which you're not likely to see from a 3rd party developer since their games will need to run on PC and consoles too most of the time.
So don't expect any Google / Stadia first-party titles after this year, if any of them come out at all. To be clear though, Google note they are "committed to the future of cloud gaming, and will continue to do our part to drive this industry forward" and that the Stadia store will continue bringing in more titles. Still, it won't stop people mentioning the Google Graveyard.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Give it some more time and they will just cancel the whole Stadia thing.
Anyway, I will always prefer native gaming. Streaming can't ever meet the visual quality of native gaming.
Bought Cyberpunk 2077 on stadia, that cost 10e/$ less than on Steam/GOG on launch day (cause of the new user discount).
If i wanted to play Cyberpunk2077 on my hardware I would have to spend a few hundreds just to make it be playable (and streamable).
In my eyes that was definitely worth it. Played probably 70hours of it, love it & love the experience.
It just seems they are refocusing on just supporting other developers than to spend much more money just on their own production of games.
I am pretty sure we will see a ton of games coming to Stadia this year and even if it's still the underdog, I totally root for the underdogs.
QuoteThe thing is, it's another nail in the coffin of the idea Google sold it all on originally.This! I like Stadia so far - but Google has definitely a trust problem. Such moves don't make it better at all. For a service where I loose absolutely everything if it shuts down trust seems very important to me. So I get uncertain more and more if I should invest further in the platform. What a shame.
They'll just need enough devs/publishers willing to port to Stadia, for that they need a user base which makes it worth porting, and I'm not very confident they do have the userbase yet, or will have in the next few years.
I hope it survives though, being able to play on the TV or PC as I choose is really nice.
Quoting: NuSueyFeel free to hate on me but I still love my purchase on Stadia.
Bought Cyberpunk 2077 on stadia, that cost 10e/$ less than on Steam/GOG on launch day (cause of the new user discount).
If i wanted to play Cyberpunk2077 on my hardware I would have to spend a few hundreds just to make it be playable (and streamable).
In my eyes that was definitely worth it. Played probably 70hours of it, love it & love the experience.
It just seems they are refocusing on just supporting other developers than to spend much more money just on their own production of games.
I am pretty sure we will see a ton of games coming to Stadia this year and even if it's still the underdog, I totally root for the underdogs.
I'm in the same boat here with AC:Valhalla and Cyberpunk. I do not even need my own PC, I can use my work laptop in the evening to play.
I don't regret buying it, but I see a risk of Google shutting down the whole thing at some point (or at least abandon it).
Doesn't matter what it actually means, it does matter how it will be perceived.
And I don't really care about the naysayers, I care about game developers that are potentially seeing this as another sign that is not worth bothering with Stadia.
With enough gamers and game developers believing and predicting that Stadia will eventually shutdown, it will became a self fulfilling prophecy.
Arehandoro Feb 2, 2021
We're not closing Stadia (for now).
Are there numbers anywhere on how many people signed for the platform, how many are active, how many are Pro subscribers, etc?
In my opinion ensuring others are not negatively impacted by Stadia should be a concern by Stadia fans, but it does not seem like it. They largely don't care, and so I don't care. Division among gamers. Driving industry forward. Yeah right...
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