rei
1813
GOG “only” wanted to be a storefront and launcher. It didn’t have aspirations of replacing and owning the whole fucking PC/console hardware and software (no OS in your way just Google) stacks. The latter is just nuts and hubris.
And maybe there will be a market in a few years, but right now they don’t have to go all-in even if people really really really really really want them to. Google already has the hardware. Google will still have the hardware in a year even if Stadia doesn’t take off. Yeah, maybe they should have toned down their ads/marketing a bit. If people wait a year the cost of trying it out for themselves won’t be very high.
I mean, it’s like No Man’s Sky. People got worked up about it because their expectations were too high, and as of right this moment it’s a decent game.
But Stadia isn’t GOG. Stadia is a platform. Aside from the lack of (local) hardware, it’s essentially angling to be the same as Xbox and PlayStation. Discrete multiplayer. Discrete “friends”. Discrete games that can only be played on that platform.
They don’t have hardware to sell (well, sort of - if you want to play on a TV, you basically need a Chromecast Ultra for the foreseeable future), but they do presumably need to sell those Pro subscriptions to make the economics work…
But more than that, every month that goes by with Stadia being an industry joke, people are going to be less willing to take it seriously if and when it finally does have something to offer. First impressions and reputations matter.
The minute someone buys a console, the utility of Stadia to them goes out the window. But Google are giving people no reason to sign on to the streaming future right now.
Maybe. The stakes for Google are very low though. This isn’t Sega and the Dreamcast where they had to ship hardware and it sunk them. The stakes are low for me too, LOL.
rei
1817
Stakes being low will only hurry Google to shutting it off quicker. Venture capital is chasing the billion dollar unicorn payouts not the small fry. Shadow having less than 100k subs is proof of how low the demand is. Heck I wonder how Shadow pays the bills.
They’re so weird about what they do and don’t shut down. Maybe they won’t this time?
rei
1819
What isn’t profitable for Google but has stayed on?
I actually think Stadia will stick around for a while, even if it’s kinda shambling like the undead at some point, because Google are probably sensitive to the growing popular perception that they abandon products and services on a whim. Even if they wanted to shutter it, they might decide to keep it going for a while to try and counter that expectation.
Who knows. Maybe those 120 games they say are on track for this year will make all the difference, though I suspect it’s telling that they provided no actual (new) names. I know some “Stadians” are pinning their hopes on the free base tier really leading to a revitalization of the multiplayer numbers, though I think that hope may be misplaced.
But hey Yak, if it works for you, it’s all good, haha. It’s not like I’d be critical of anyone who decided to give Stadia a try - as you say, it’s low stakes. I even considered picking up one of the kits, simply because I’m one of “those people” who likes to impulse buy the new tech thing, even if I have no use for it and was critical of their pitch for months before release.
If nothing else, the words “Google” and “gaming” for months have been associated with each other in the press. That has intrinsic value.
rei
1823
Speaking of which, Google shut down App Maker today.
Kadath
1824
The peasants are revolting…
(Yes that’s a PCMR pun but also Wizard of Id)
rei
1825
TIL Google employees are mods in there. Isn’t that against the rules?
rei
1826
… negative or positive value?
Wow so you have to claim the games like Gold or Plus. You’d think they would try to build up a library to make the Pro subscription more enticing.
rei
1829
Yes, it’s funny at this rate that they are running out of titles, period, out of the entire catalog to put up on offer.
The naming of the titles is unofficial—so far no word from Google official Stadia channels.
Bonus denial of reality from the handful of Stadia fan sites/channels isn’t really catching on:
Pissing into the wind.
Quaro
1830
You still can’t play it on any phone or an iPad or whatever. The first thing they should have done is leverage the ‘play anywhere’ capability. What’s even the point of being Pixel only?
rei
1831
If I thought Google knew what they were doing they’d have stagger released an unpaid beta to test on various devices. But clearly they don’t.
For real? So if you sign up for Pro a year from now, you only get what’s been added that month? Do you even get Destiny 2?
