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.
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Kimyrielle Feb 2, 2021
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: GuestThat is the point people keep missing, because they just have to get their bit in on Google. Creating and maintaining a game studio, one big enough to do costly AAA titles is a huge and extremely messy thing that just isn't Google. Clearly so. Yes others can do it, because they have a long history and started off making smaller games and scaling up.Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: GuestActually, "Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially."
Translation: Making AAA games costs money.
Google must have been really shocked to find out. It was such a well-kept secret that making AAA games costs money!
And...I dunno. EA and Ubisoft seem to be quite successful making AAA games and Google is 100 times (or 1000?) richer than these two companies combined. *shrug*
They have established studios.....
I'm no huge fan of Google overall (I'm even moving away from gmail after being with it since the start!), despite liking Stadia, but the overwhelming urge people seem to have to just not think things through about commenting on it is either ignorance or just plain stupidity to make a dig at GOog.
Not sure if that "plain stupidity" thing was aimed at me. I suppose so, because you quoted my posting. Ok...Thank you, I guess...
As for your comment, maybe your point would have hold some merit if Google had hired a few dozen freshly graduated devs from college and told them to start coding random stuff, but they didn't. They hired VERY experienced people to build up, and software development is a business I would say Google has a little bit of experience in, don't you think? At least it's not like your neighborhood bakery trying to get into game development without having seen a computer before.
Anyway, if dissenting opinions are met with that level of hostility, I better go do something else.
EDIT: Fun fact: I don't hate Google. Except if buying Pixel phones and Pixelbooks from them is now considered "hate". Judging from what I can see they tried to open a new field of business (cloud gaming), realized that it is going nowhere, and cut their losses. That's just a sane business decision.
Last edited by Kimyrielle on 2 February 2021 at 11:52 pm UTC
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Quoting: Liam Dawethe overwhelming urge people seem to have to just not think things through about commenting on it is either ignorance or just plain stupidity to make a dig at GOog.Gotta say, Liam, if that wasn't you saying that I'm not sure you'd approve of how the tone contributed to your community.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuySome things just have to be said and I am very blunt.Quoting: Liam Dawethe overwhelming urge people seem to have to just not think things through about commenting on it is either ignorance or just plain stupidity to make a dig at GOog.Gotta say, Liam, if that wasn't you saying that I'm not sure you'd approve of how the tone contributed to your community.
And no it was not directed specifically at any one person.
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Mohandevir Feb 3, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: MohandevirI suppose. On the other hand, where I live bandwidth keeps getting more expensive. I could spend a bunch of $/month just playing the damn games, which would add up to the price of a better computer surprisingly quickly.Quoting: Kimyrielle.. Otherwise there is like -zero- point in cloud gaming...
Have you tried buying PC hardware lately? PS5? Xbox Series? Prices have skyrocketed if available at all... These "PC component crisis" are becoming quite common stuff. That's an area where cloud gaming might become attractive.
Never said that Stadia is good for everyone or that it's a must have either... Like in all things there are unfit use cases, but saying that winding down SG&E makes Stadia irrelevant is a huge exageration, imo. Creating it wasn't mandatory to launch a streaming service, in the first place, anyway.
Personally, I'll continue to be satisfied by Stadia (I have an excellent internet connexion, that I already had, before Stadia) and I will keep a careful eye on the futur of Stadia... I'm not a Google hater, but I'm not blind either.
Makes me really wonder about this Project Hailstorm... It might shed some light about this SG&E thing.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 3 February 2021 at 2:31 am UTC
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Quoting: MohandevirJust curious... In what is it any different than buying a PS4, XBox or Nintendo Switch? Why should it be more damaging? Imo it's a Linux console in the cloud. It's not a PC. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see why...Both consoles have local and streaming. If a third party game is exclusive to Stadia it means it's streaming exclusive. If a game is exclusive to a console, it's a hardware exclusive. The thing with consoles and Stadia is they are quite similar though. The times I've viewed Stadia sub I get a "we are a family let's stick together and nurture this plant" vibe. And people are busy with convincing others to use Stadia. How one could buy into such things when Google could or would buy exclusive rights to third party games, that would affect other gamers choice, is beyond me. Yes, it's great you enjoy Stadia but if Stadia has negative consequences for others, then maybe it's not so great.
Choice is important. You should be able to play the same game with Stadia just as I should be able to play it through GOG or Steam. Unfortunately Google has shown more signs of not wanting to give people choice than the opposite.
If Stadia Pro is not better compared to consoles. That it's a product here to help Google not gamers, then someone should make a wake up post on /r/Stadia and remind them of that.
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Quoting: Mohandevir...saying that winding down SG&E makes Stadia irrelevant is a huge exageration, imo.It deals a huge blow to Google's perceived commitment to Stadia and it reduces it to the "just another streaming service" status. Before this announcement Stadia was at point when it slowly and painfully gained some measure of credibility and SG&E was to be its main strength.
SG&E was the only way to create those innovatory big awesome games with tech that could only run in the cloud, due to its computing prowess.
QuoteThe fundamental benefit of our cloud native infrastructure is the developers will be able to take advantage of hardware and power in ways never before possible. (Phil Harrison, Stadia presentation)What types of games, well, is doubtful we'll know or see any time soon, because no sane third party game developer/publisher will create these Stadia-only compatible games, not unless they're paid huge amounts of money, money that Google clearly doesn't want to spend on Stadia.
SG&E was basically the biggest thing promised, since it was supposed to do what no one else could, and now Google backtracked on that promise, proving doubters right.
Yes, no arguments here, making games is no small feat, it takes great amounts of money and expertise, and going with third party creators is likely the best way, but they should have realize that from the very beginning.
Instead they over-promised and now (after a a botched launch) under-delivered, because "making games is hard". well, no shit Sherlock. Where was Google's wisdom two years ago when it hired Jade Raymond and all those people? Is understandable for a small inexperienced company to get carried away with big plans and promises, but Google should've know better.
Now they're again the butt of jokes in the media, and with enough bad momentum they're likely to slip back into uncertainty territory, both for gamers and game dev/publishers.
They badly need some good publicity to counteract this embarrassing blunder.
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Quoting: MohandevirI don't know about that... Maybe. Thing is, the problem comes from ressources used in the fabrications of many components... If I got it right, the same ressources are also used in many other electronic appliances, so part of the available ressources might not even have been used to produce PC components. Time will tell...
PC sales have dropped every year from 2012 to 2018 (and raised 1% in 2019, probably due to arriving EOL of Windows 7). Estimated rise in 2020 is 5%. The drop in production is one side, the additional demand (due to home office) the other one.
https://www.statista.com/chart/12578/global-pc-shipments/
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Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: Purple Library GuySome things just have to be said and I am very blunt.Quoting: Liam Dawethe overwhelming urge people seem to have to just not think things through about commenting on it is either ignorance or just plain stupidity to make a dig at GOog.Gotta say, Liam, if that wasn't you saying that I'm not sure you'd approve of how the tone contributed to your community.
And no it was not directed specifically at any one person.
welp glad you mentioned on how you can block any articles with the word stadia because i never even knew you could do that.i won't get into my opinion on it seeing it was already said by someone else.
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Mohandevir Feb 3, 2021
Quoting: LinuxwarperQuoting: MohandevirJust curious... In what is it any different than buying a PS4, XBox or Nintendo Switch? Why should it be more damaging? Imo it's a Linux console in the cloud. It's not a PC. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see why...Both consoles have local and streaming. If a third party game is exclusive to Stadia it means it's streaming exclusive. If a game is exclusive to a console, it's a hardware exclusive. The thing with consoles and Stadia is they are quite similar though. The times I've viewed Stadia sub I get a "we are a family let's stick together and nurture this plant" vibe. And people are busy with convincing others to use Stadia. How one could buy into such things when Google could or would buy exclusive rights to third party games, that would affect other gamers choice, is beyond me. Yes, it's great you enjoy Stadia but if Stadia has negative consequences for others, then maybe it's not so great.
Choice is important. You should be able to play the same game with Stadia just as I should be able to play it through GOG or Steam. Unfortunately Google has shown more signs of not wanting to give people choice than the opposite.
If Stadia Pro is not better compared to consoles. That it's a product here to help Google not gamers, then someone should make a wake up post on /r/Stadia and remind them of that.
To me it's clear that Stadia is a good addition to my PC. I play on Stadia, games that I can't play on my PC (compatibility issues). Personnally being able to play a game locally or in the cloud on a PS4 or Xbox has absolutely no meaning. Your are a prisoner of Sony and Microsoft's digital services. Same way you are a prisoner of Google when you use Stadia. What you are calling out is a situation that always existed and that Stadia didn't create, but it's worse because of Google? Or because they are late to the party? I still fail to see your point. In fact, I feel that I have more choices then ever before and, at least, Stadia runs on Debian Linux.
Quoting: LinuxwarperThe times I've viewed Stadia sub I get a "we are a family let's stick together and nurture this plant" vibe. And people are busy with convincing others to use Stadia.
You are not talking about me for sure, but I must admit that Google has it's Zealots (which I'm absolutely not), just like Apple, Xbox, Playstation and even Linux users, but it's not something that's about to change. People tend to like to be identified to a banner and think their solution is better than the other because... Why in fact? ...Because they chose it, I guess.
I'm not even trying to convince anybody to use Stadia. Just giving my personnal experience with the service, which I find pretty polished and well tought out. Lots of small details that makes it natural to use and well integrated in the Google ecosystem (and it's not even officially out on Android TV). I'm just stating the facts that I witnessed. Is it the best? I don't know. Make your own opinion. All I can say it's the one I prefer, compared to GeForce Now, which I tried and replaced with the Steam Link app... Not going to tell you that you must think like me, but using a Windows host for my Steam games is beyond my strength. I feel dirty when doing that, even when I have complaints about Protondb or Linux in general.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 3 February 2021 at 3:39 pm UTC
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MintedGamer Feb 3, 2021
Quoting: dubigrasuQuoting: Mohandevir...saying that winding down SG&E makes Stadia irrelevant is a huge exageration, imo.It deals a huge blow to Google's perceived commitment to Stadia and it reduces it to the "just another streaming service" status. Before this announcement Stadia was at point when it slowly and painfully gained some measure of credibility and SG&E was to be its main strength.
SG&E was the only way to create those innovatory big awesome games with tech that could only run in the cloud, due to its computing prowess.
QuoteThe fundamental benefit of our cloud native infrastructure is the developers will be able to take advantage of hardware and power in ways never before possible. (Phil Harrison, Stadia presentation)What types of games, well, is doubtful we'll know or see any time soon, because no sane third party game developer/publisher will create these Stadia-only compatible games, not unless they're paid huge amounts of money, money that Google clearly doesn't want to spend on Stadia.
SG&E was basically the biggest thing promised, since it was supposed to do what no one else could, and now Google backtracked on that promise, proving doubters right.
Yes, no arguments here, making games is no small feat, it takes great amounts of money and expertise, and going with third party creators is likely the best way, but they should have realize that from the very beginning.
Instead they over-promised and now (after a a botched launch) under-delivered, because "making games is hard". well, no shit Sherlock. Where was Google's wisdom two years ago when it hired Jade Raymond and all those people? Is understandable for a small inexperienced company to get carried away with big plans and promises, but Google should've know better.
Now they're again the butt of jokes in the media, and with enough bad momentum they're likely to slip back into uncertainty territory, both for gamers and game dev/publishers.
They badly need some good publicity to counteract this embarrassing blunder.
I agree, the optics are that Google doesn't have enough confidence in its own platform to fund its own Development studio. The reality may be different, but that's what the public and the developer community sees, they poached a number of very high profile industry veterans and a year later let them all go without any external results, not even enough time for a AAA game to get out of pre-production. It doesn't give any confidence in the platform when people are already extremely distrustful of Google dropping projects on a whim if they are not an immediate game changer and this just gives everyone a reason to say "I told you so".
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