![]() ![]() It shows others the way and points them there – that’s all. Google is a trailblazer, but not one that necessarily walks the path it creates. Just like Pixelbook, just like its other products, Stadia fulfilled its purpose. Stadia was about the “stadium” of fans, the hype, and the community, not just the tech, and I think the armchair managers up top failed to understand that. Google has burnt enough bridges with consumers and creators alike that whatever it thinks up next will have less and less positive reception, and that alone is enough to perpetuate the cycle of products and services dying to little fanfare. Google will never have a problem pushing the world forward, it will just eventually have a problem with asking people to go along with it to that future, and I believe we’re beginning to see that happen.Įven if Immersive Stream for Games goes on to influence the future of cloud gaming, it doesn’t really even matter. Doing anything outside of that will fail unless it invests for the long haul as it did with ChromeOS and unless that thing it creates can’t be untangled from its DNA. In the meantime, Google will continue to do what it does best – being a connector of information and fulfilling its mission statement to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. My heart goes out to the team members who will not be so lucky and will be looking for new jobs this week, and I certainly hope they land on their feet! Developers who were creating games for Stadia will now have to shutter their project arms, and Stadia team employees are being moved to other parts of Google. Stadia YouTubers will now have to pivot their channels, and yes, they probably should have avoided niching down too much, it still sucks. Google moves at breakneck speeds to innovate, hardly ever slowing down to consider whether something was truly a good move or not or how it affects the people who are building its foundation. It’s so very disappointing, but it’s not at all surprising. Actually, the entire situation could have been handled with more grace, and how poorly it was executed reveals how out of touch Phil Harrison and the higher-ups are with the Stadia community, its partnering developers, and content creators. While I know that this approach keeps people from dipping early (something they deserve to do), it’s still unethical, in my opinion. Content creators have dedicated thousands of hours streaming Stadia games and building entire YouTube channels and brands around the platform only to be let down by the search giant yesterday. However, true believers stuck it out and preached the future of cloud gaming from the rooftops, eloquently stating that Google was ahead of the curve, and ahead of its time. The skeptics saw early on when Stadia Games & Entertainment – Google’s in-house game studio – was shuttered that something was amiss behind the scenes. Many of us in the industry and many bleeding edge users were already aware of the company’s dwindling consumer trust, but pulling the plug on Stadia – a service enjoyed by regular people and responsible for bringing older or more jaded gamers back into the fold – means that far more people are now aware of Google’s tendency to give up on apps and services (even after custom creating hardware for them) and to innovate recklessly forward. You see, Stadia represented quite possibly the last time that the average consumer would dive in head first and trust Google without pause. ![]() Now, we’re left to pick up the pieces, asking ourselves if Immersive Stream for Games even really matters. I guess I just figured that it would wait until this idea was much more fleshed out or that the shift to it was much more obvious before pulling the plug on its loyal fans, but who am I kidding? But does it really matter anymore? Applying this tech to YouTube, AR, and Play – exciting. Google claims it’s found great success in this B2B approach, and while we still have little to no idea what this encompasses beyond its Capcom and AT&T deals – one of which is no longer being offered – that’s the road it’s decided to go, apparently. We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators. We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts - as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed. ![]() The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia has been proven at scale and transcends gaming. ![]()
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