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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Quoting: MohandevirI used to play the NHL games. But buying them every year I started to realize how repetitive they got. I think the last one I have is NHL 2002. I haven't paid much attention to them in years. Last I heard the PC versions of the game didn't get the attention that the console versions got and were missing features. Is that still the case? Or do they even release the PC version anymore?Quoting: Liam DaweEA just announced they're putting FIFA on Stadia in March. Interesting timing...
Yeah... But... Where is NHL21?!
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orochi_kyo Feb 7, 2021
I'm very glad to hear this, feel kinda bad for the jobs lost.
But every single company out there thinks they are doing "the next step in gaming" and they are trying so hard to reinvent the wheel, without asking gamers themselves if they asked for those "steps".
Valve with that VR crap and then Google making us play remotely and putting the games "we are renting" behind the worst DRM wall ever.
The very next good news to my ears is Valve is scraping VR bs and making single-player games for EVERYONE.
Have a good day.
But every single company out there thinks they are doing "the next step in gaming" and they are trying so hard to reinvent the wheel, without asking gamers themselves if they asked for those "steps".
Valve with that VR crap and then Google making us play remotely and putting the games "we are renting" behind the worst DRM wall ever.
The very next good news to my ears is Valve is scraping VR bs and making single-player games for EVERYONE.
Have a good day.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: orochi_kyoI'm very glad to hear this, feel kinda bad for the jobs lost.In all aspects of life we all benefit from all kind of inventions and innovations that nobody asked for, heck, nobody asked for video games.
But every single company out there thinks they are doing "the next step in gaming" and they are trying so hard to reinvent the wheel, without asking gamers themselves if they asked for those "steps".
Video games were born out of small fun experiments with professional computers that weren't made for gaming, and with continuous incremental innovations we got where we are today. I wouldn't want to stop this process, to stifle innovations just because I am content with the status quo.
Both cloud gaming and VR are the next steps in this searching process, they will continue to exist and grow with or without Google or Valve, until of course the future will decide their usefulness.
1 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Feb 7, 2021
Quoting: uglyQuoting: MohandevirI used to play the NHL games. But buying them every year I started to realize how repetitive they got. I think the last one I have is NHL 2002. I haven't paid much attention to them in years. Last I heard the PC versions of the game didn't get the attention that the console versions got and were missing features. Is that still the case? Or do they even release the PC version anymore?Quoting: Liam DaweEA just announced they're putting FIFA on Stadia in March. Interesting timing...
Yeah... But... Where is NHL21?!
In fact, the last PC version is 2009. It's not even in 1080p.
1 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Feb 7, 2021
Quoting: dubigrasuQuoting: EikeQuoting: dubigrasuQuoteThe pitch for stadia, really the pitch for cloud gaming in general to me, if you wanna truly take off, is that is supposed to deliver gaming experiences that were otherwise impossible.
...................................
The point is: the killer app for cloud gaming was supposed to be gaming experiences that we couldn't otherwise achieve. That was the sales pitch.
And what Google needed to do is understand that it was going to take time and have some fucking patience for a change.
I don't think that's the main selling point for most people. That would be, IMHO, that you "rent" decent hardware instead of buying it and can play e.g. on your mediocre home office box.
True point, people can still merrily use Stadia and not give a second thought to the "cloud gaming" as envisioned and promised by Google, just like they can do on any other streaming service.
But while "true cloud-gaming" might not be seen as a selling point now, it could have been a strong one in the future, one that could truly make a difference in the way we see, play and think about games. One that could really differentiate Stadia from the rest. Killing SG&E though eliminated that from the future timeline.
And that's the thing, apart from some extra features, three's not much difference from the rest. They're now just another streaming service in the crowd, and some others, frankly, have better offers.
..........
Boy, I hate when I have to edit one single letter typo and then I have to carry that "last edited by etc etc" badge...
I don't know for sure out it fits the situation, but they launched Stadia State Share with Hitman 3... A title they didn't internally develop. Couldn't the same be done for other new features?
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Quoting: MohandevirI usually spend my time actually playing hockey. But since there is no beer league hockey going on with the pandemic measures, I might have picked up the latest version of the EA game.Quoting: uglyQuoting: MohandevirI used to play the NHL games. But buying them every year I started to realize how repetitive they got. I think the last one I have is NHL 2002. I haven't paid much attention to them in years. Last I heard the PC versions of the game didn't get the attention that the console versions got and were missing features. Is that still the case? Or do they even release the PC version anymore?Quoting: Liam DaweEA just announced they're putting FIFA on Stadia in March. Interesting timing...
Yeah... But... Where is NHL21?!
In fact, the last PC version is 2009. It's not even in 1080p.
Steam has Bush League Hockey, which seems like it's trying to look like the SNES era version of the EA games. But the reviews are mixed.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: MohandevirYes, like I said, they still have some extra cloud features (state share, crowd play, builtin streaming), but they're still features that can be applied to any plain "normal" game. Nothing revolutionary. A true cloud game can be much more beyond that.Quoting: dubigrasuQuoting: EikeQuoting: dubigrasuQuoteThe pitch for stadia, really the pitch for cloud gaming in general to me, if you wanna truly take off, is that is supposed to deliver gaming experiences that were otherwise impossible.
...................................
The point is: the killer app for cloud gaming was supposed to be gaming experiences that we couldn't otherwise achieve. That was the sales pitch.
And what Google needed to do is understand that it was going to take time and have some fucking patience for a change.
I don't think that's the main selling point for most people. That would be, IMHO, that you "rent" decent hardware instead of buying it and can play e.g. on your mediocre home office box.
True point, people can still merrily use Stadia and not give a second thought to the "cloud gaming" as envisioned and promised by Google, just like they can do on any other streaming service.
But while "true cloud-gaming" might not be seen as a selling point now, it could have been a strong one in the future, one that could truly make a difference in the way we see, play and think about games. One that could really differentiate Stadia from the rest. Killing SG&E though eliminated that from the future timeline.
And that's the thing, apart from some extra features, three's not much difference from the rest. They're now just another streaming service in the crowd, and some others, frankly, have better offers.
..........
Boy, I hate when I have to edit one single letter typo and then I have to carry that "last edited by etc etc" badge...
I don't know for sure out it fits the situation, but they launched Stadia State Share with Hitman 3... A title they didn't internally develop. Couldn't the same be done for other new features?
All the worlds within the current games are limited by your computer capabilities, imagine that limit, all those barriers eliminated. Think what your best computer can do versus what a super computer can.
Put a bunch of smart young developers in a room and tell them, you have thousand of GPUs at your disposal and the sky is the limit, let you imagination run wild and make a game with it. I'm pretty sure a game like this would blow our minds. And then play it on your laptop in your bedroom.
Look, I can't pretend that I know exactly how a game like that would look or be like, I'm too old and entrenched in the current way of thinking about how games should be, and that why I was so excited by this premise. I was ready to be amazed.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 7 February 2021 at 7:26 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Feb 8, 2021
Quoting: uglyQuoting: MohandevirI usually spend my time actually playing hockey. But since there is no beer league hockey going on with the pandemic measures, I might have picked up the latest version of the EA game.Quoting: uglyQuoting: MohandevirI used to play the NHL games. But buying them every year I started to realize how repetitive they got. I think the last one I have is NHL 2002. I haven't paid much attention to them in years. Last I heard the PC versions of the game didn't get the attention that the console versions got and were missing features. Is that still the case? Or do they even release the PC version anymore?Quoting: Liam DaweEA just announced they're putting FIFA on Stadia in March. Interesting timing...
Yeah... But... Where is NHL21?!
In fact, the last PC version is 2009. It's not even in 1080p.
Steam has Bush League Hockey, which seems like it's trying to look like the SNES era version of the EA games. But the reviews are mixed.
And this one, which looks like NES Ice Hockey:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/532190/Super_Blood_Hockey/
0 Likes
Quoting: dubigrasuBoy, I hate when I have to edit one single letter typo and then I have to carry that "last edited by etc etc" badge...
Same here! :D
It's... soiled!
2 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Feb 8, 2021
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