Google got into the cloud gaming business with its Stadia subscription service. It had all the right components; a massive cloud infrastructure, mass adoption of Chromecast streaming dongles (lol…dongles) and unlimited funds.
It launched Stadia with an in-house team called “Stadia Games and Entertainment” which Google recently announced would be winding down.
And though a Google spokesperson emphasizes that the company continues to “remain committed to Stadia as a platform,” it’s looking increasingly likely that platform won’t be a service where you sign up with Google to buy and rent cloud games.
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This suggests Google has realized an important truth: Stadia, like so many of Google’s other businesses, is optimally one where you aren’t the customer. The paying customers, if Google can get them, are game publishers themselves, and possibly ISPs that would like to deliver a cable-like bundle of games to go along with their cable-like bundles of shows.
The Verge
Google has a nasty habit of ending under performing products and services.
Some see Google stepping away from making their own games for Stadia as a sign that the gaming service doesn’t have much longer to live. If Google isn’t going to make games for their platform, why should anyone else?
Following that thought, the announcement was a realization of their initial concerns about trusting Google to create a gaming platform, pointing to Google’s storied history of “killing” beloved products. To put it simply, people see the shutdown of Stadia Games and Entertainment as the beginning of the death of Stadia.
9to5 Google
While the official line from Google is that they are committed to gaming going forward, it surely does not feel like that is true.
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