According to PlayStation and Xbox veteran Phil Harrison, Google Stadia was supposed to be the future of gaming, but the platform never truly lived up to that promise. While the underlying technology’s potential is excellent, several challenges and setbacks stopped Google Stadia from becoming the dominant force it was hoping to become. Google seems to be aware of this as it is now trying to breathe new life into Stadia.
Announced back in 2019 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Stadia promised seamless cloud streaming of even the biggest games in the market. It was launched a few months after the announcement and immediately faced the challenge of retaining users, and was also missing out on crucial features. This happened due to a split in the Google Stadia team, with one camp believing it should have been a traditional console launch and the other presenting it as a beta test.
The recent acquisition news of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard and PlayStation-Bungie has caused some apprehension amongst Google executives who have decided to pursue a conservative approach for Stadia’s long-term future. Going from fully supporting the platform to doing what they can to ensure the brilliant technology stays alive is clear evidence of Google’s confidence in competing against Xbox and PlayStation.
Google Stadia saw a peak during the initial period of Cyberpunk 2077‘s release. Players were unable to get their hands on the newest consoles, and PC players were having just as much difficulty regarding graphics cards. Along with Cyberpunk 2077, Google Stadia had several AAA games on their roster, such as Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. Despite all this, the monthly subscriber count still lagged behind the projected numbers by at least 25%, with the platform seeing a peak of 750,000 monthly users.
Due to this, Google has now decided to take the safer route. The search engine giant will be focusing its efforts on securing white-label deals that leverage the technology, which has now been rebranded as Google Stream. Google had earlier made a deal with Peloton to support games on its bikes, but the company has since halted production of the connected fitness products due to reduced demand. They were also talking with Bungie to use Google Stadia’s technology to support a Bungie streaming service, but that also now seems to be in the air with the recent PlayStation acquisition.
Google will still support the consumer end of Google Stream – the Stadia platform itself – but its budget and focus have significantly reduced. While many project insiders want to keep the forum alive for the long term, the current scenario of the gaming industry seems to be quite precarious for Stadia.
About Google
Founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is an American MNC that offers a wide range of internet-related products services designed for work efficiency (GoogleDocs, Google Slides), cloud storage (Google Drive), navigation (Google Maps, Street View, etc.), video sharing (YouTube), instant messaging and video chat (Google Duo, Google Meet, etc.), translation (Google Translate), etc.
Alongside Apple, FaceBook, and Amazon, Google is considered one of the big four internet stocks. In addition, it is the most visited website in the world. Forbes ranked Google as the second most valuable brand in the world.
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