PS Now Competitor Google Stadia Ceases Internal Game Development

You backed the wrong donkey, Phil.

Didn't they make like only one first party game lmfao

@TheFrenchiestFry Lol yeah they did

In other (slightly more surprising) news, water is wet

@TheFrenchiestFry If you're thinking of Gylt, that wasn't even made by Google! The two studios in question haven't put out a single game.

Now to wait for Stadia to shut down like every other product Google has made.

Evidently Google enjoys burning money 🤷🏼‍♂️

@LiamCroft Well goddamn

They really are sending this service to the Google Graveyard like everything else lmao

I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s but it’s pretty crappy thing to do to the developers.

selling the last bit of user data before the door closes..mission complete.

While I'm genuinely sad for the developers being let go, I'm really glad that Stadia appears to be falling flat on its face.

Soooooooo Shannon left Santa Monica for nothing it seems

Well is anyone surprised at all ? Expect it too be dead and buried by the end of the year, waiting for the stadia fanboys too defend their sinking ship.

This was inevitable to be honest. Typical google approach. Wont be long before servers are wound down and refunds or play store credits are issued to its 2 or 3 users

Google abandoning something ?
Quelle surprise !

@Keyblade-Dan Damn she left a top position in Santa Monica for something we all knew (but apparently she didn't) wasn't going to last very long.

Wow, that's a really funny joke, Liam. You said that Stadia was a competitor! I nearly peed myself, that was hilarious. Gave me a good chuckle.

@Grimwood https://killedbygoogle.com/

Phil Harrison is like the video game industry equivalent of the grim reaper.

There was a poster on Nintendo Life's HM3 review what was heavily defending Stadia and saying it has a bright future and all that, would love to see his response to this haha

I still believe streaming isn't as certain to go mainstream as companies and analysts seem to believe. It's going to be expensive to have any chance of turning a profit, and 'gaming on the go' really isn't that much of a game changer as they seem to believe.
The vast majority of westerners do not commute, likely spent their breaks talking with others or reading the news or whatever.
Not to mention that most public wifi isnt anywhere near strong enough to stream.
Home internet has problems too, sure its getting better, but still not good enough to be 100% reliant upon. Especially if you are sharing it with others in the house.

My Faith in the Gaming Community is restored.

I mean... they’ve been doing better than ever due to Cyberpunk being actually playable through it. I was never convinced by exclusives for it anyway.

@Number09

It's nothing too do with the gaming community it's just google being google!

I still play games on my stadia mainly via handheld these days since I got a Ps5 though still it's pretty cool playing cyberpunk division and ghost recon handled don't really care much for stadia exclusive games anyway

Shannon really shouldn’t have Studstill 🙊

It’s always sad to see studios shut. But at least they didn’t make a Bethesda is the style acquisition before giving up.

This thing is dead, Google completely screwed this one up. Every time there is some good news, like there is a free demo for fenyx rising or cyberpunk performing better than base consoles and lower end pc's, it gets lost with news about features not getting delivered or games getting cancelled. If they pack in the buy your game bit and swap it for a gamepass model, they might still have something. Amazon luna with the ubisoft channel might be more of a psnow competitor

Not surprising, alot of PC gamers who have machines that can play games in 1080p don't all have faster enough fibre to stream stadia in stable 4k so zero point in them using stadia. Infact alot of people do not have good enough fibre, not just that it also depends on your household too and who else is using the internet which will slow speeds down and knacker the 4k gameplay lol. In my house family are usually streaming movies or TV, YouTube or just on the internet on mobiles or tablets....no chance of me streaming 4k games, even without anyone else being on it the stadia speed checker said I could get 1080p 60fps...what's the point as my pc can do 4k at that lol.

Things are not there yet for a service like this to be viable and to make money, Infact I think we are 5 to 10 years away still

'When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,” Spencer. February 2020
😀

@Kcwolfuk stadia itself will not be around long, Google will give it another year at most, not enough people using it to warrant the costs of keeping it running, bare in mind Google will be paying these studios to put their games on stadia too lol

@JJ2 he really said that?

Google failed at promoting a streaming gaming service while everyone was at home in lockdown from the pandemic. Were they ever really trying?

As was expected.

@Voltan
Oh he said so many things.
He did

Phil Harrison.

Hire this man, and it's an omen.

@rjejr A service targeted at people who didn't own any gaming hardware but were still willing to pay full price for games. It was always kinda weird.

we should remember how Google said they were committed to Stadia when it dies

It’s goes to show money doesn’t get you there every time.
That years of gaming creation and development of in house studio games and franchises is what gets you to the top.
Just look at Sony and Nintendo.

This is really disheartening. I was a heavy supporter of the platform due Stadia offering the best streaming technology of the major 5 (xCloud, GeForce Now, PS Now, Shadow, and Luna)

Google truly doesn't know how to run a business out side of they've already found success in.

Everyone knew it was gonna happen (except some developers apparently) the real question was when was gonna end

Predicted this would happen, most people did, didn't even last 2 years, what a waste of time, money, resources and talent.

@jake3103 - Closure or they'll sell them off, hard to say.

@LiamCroft - Plus I'm pretty sure Gylt was always planned to be a Timed Exclusive for Stadia, wonder what will become of it now?

Sony, should try to get Jade Raymond and Shannon Studstill along with other developers to maybe form a new studio or join existing one to make another team.

I won't deny it, I'm happy that Google's attempt of tearing down our hobby by owning yet another market is falling apart. Sad about the professionals working there, though. I hope other studios hire them soon!

OnLive Mk. II

And those people who have bought games on it will lose everything. I'm sure they'll be disappointed... both of them. 😜

This approach is the very worst of gaming solutions. I still believe physical is best, but even if you buy digital on PSN/Live, you still have the game to play. Buying a full-price game on a streaming service with no ability to download and keep? Truly bizarre.

While I do use Netflix and Prime, this is why I also still buy movies I really like on disc rather than through PSN, Prime, or Google Movies... the companies can, in theory, wipe out your access to your entire collection at the press of a button.

A shame for the devs involved, especially Jade Raymond and more especially Shannon Studstill.

Less than a year ago even the big players like Sony and Microsoft were hedging their bets with game streaming. It's now obvious, once again, that this isn't the future. For those of you keeping track, this is not the first game streaming service to collapse. There are issues inherent to the business model that seemingly can't be solved - specifically lag, inferior performance, and offering the service at a profitable price that is also appealing to customers.

Google, you made the Wii U look good by comparison...

Thanks! 😄

It's always funny when I get a reminder that this thing exists, then I forget again five minutes later.

Killedbygoogle.com

Competition is good so this makes it a sad news story with it's employees also getting axed but... I just think Stadia should've been on "beta" until it was ready with it's features and just stayed in it until people actually give it a chance and proved it self.
Though Google is being Google and killing everything after a few months.

The Stadia.... Google's version of the Ouya. Bigger company, same results.

Yet Judgment is skipping PC for the Stadia, you do have to question the (lack of) logic of Sega sometimes.

they're beyond pathetic...switching over to Opera

It's funny considering the fuss that was going about the cloud but I feel sorry for the people impacted tbh. Some arent lucky with their career.

If they decided to scrap stadia why not keep the studios and make themselves as a game developer. They have the money to remain a player in the industry. This just smells of half hearted decision making, poor leadership...

A lot of animosity in the comments towards Stadia - I wonder why? Has anyone tried it? Personally, I have - had it since May of last year and, as a product, it works flawlessly.

No download times, no input lag, no latency, able to play 4k HDR on tv, my 11 year old iMac, my iPhone. When my PS5 crashed Cyberpunk for the eighth or so time, bought it on Stadia and finished it, no problems. And it looks a hell of a lot better too.

Put around 70 hours into Baldur’s Gate 3 early access...

Also, the free games are well worth the monthly sub, I think you got three months free now anyway and have access to about two dozen free games.

Initially I read the horrible launch of Stadia but after months of dialling things in, it’s genuinely great. Sad to see first party studios go but if it means they can focus on bringing more third party games to the platform, then ok. A weird misstep but it is far from dead.

Google Stadia ceases to exist

I still maintain that Stadia was a good product, launched and maintained poorly. This will only limit the confidence in the product further, meaning its end is more inevitable.

Amazon Luna, on the other hand, if bundled with a better games model and launch, possibly tied to Prime has a far better chance to succeed.

@SweetSummerShunv

It's not lack of logic it's about money

@suikoden Well it doesn't make sense from the money perspective either: there are many more PC gamers out there than 9th gen console owners and Stadia subscribers combined. Unless Google paid a huge stash to Sega, which I don't think is likely the case since it's a relatively small title and given Google's own business thinkings, I don't think the tradeoff is going to be good at all.

@Paranoimia it's not even just about the fact that they can do it in theory. Just think about the disruption from content moving between platforms in the last few years as every publisher tries to establish a streaming platform. All the stuff netflix lost to Disney plus, shows like the Expanse starting on one platform and ending up on another.

Now it's getting to the point where it costs as much as sky to have access to everything.

The thing people overlook with Game Pass Netflix, HBO Max etc is that these subscription services are still in the early stages of a disruptor business challenger model whereby you make a compelling offer that's cost attractive too undermine the legacy market leaders. Then once you have market share you scale back and raise prices. Just look at Uber. Netflix is further along this path and the value is getting worse as they produce more crap, cheap content and raider prices.

Ultimately the problem for me is if I want to watch a specific film or listen to a certain song and it's not hugely popular, it often isn't to be found on any of the platforms. Just serves to push more emphasis to Triple AAA and kill the middle of the market. Fancy watching Minority Report tonight? Die Hard? You're gonna have to pay 6 pounds to 'rent' them because they're not in any other platforms.

That's not even getting into the issues around pay for the actual content creators.

Stadia is dead? Oh... I knew it. But, who cares?
It have even not been launched in my country.

So the same as when Sony abandoned the Vita. Only while the Vita keeps lurching on, coughing up blood, I suspect the Stadia will disappear a lot faster.

I'm not sure if an optional sub available on a full-fledged console was ever in completion with a standalone sub you need separate dedicated hardware for.

People seem to think a game studio shutting down equals a platform shutting down. They're very different things. I look forward to reading all the "Stadia is dead" comments this time next year again.
Totally forgot about the 1 year anniversary of people saying it will be dead in a year last November. Must set a reminder on my phone.

@Nakatomi_Uk just checked. It still exists. Will check again tomorrow.

@themightyant yeah I agree with this, I think it's only a matter of time and the right businesses to make it work. Latency is a big issue with games, you can't buffer in the same way you can a film and people's tolerance to something stopping half way through to buffer some more won't be the same with gaming, but bandwidth is growing year on year and soon won't be an issue. Then you have the service, Google got that all wrong, I think people will want a subscription based service like game pass or ps now, the gaming equivalent of Netflix, potential tier level access which might get you exclusives etc. Either way the new generation are less reliant on physical media, in 40+ and can't remember the last time I purchased a DVD or Blu-ray, heck even all my ps5 games are digital (despite me owning a disk version)

Give it time and if the quality of streaming can compete with a ps5, for something you're paying for monthly with access to decent titles, people will come.

Soon you'll just have a TV and an internet signal (and 20 spare plug sockets you installed 'back in the day' to cope with everything) - truly wireless 😁

@deathaxe interesting angle. Not trolling here, as I honestly don't know the answer, but would cloud gaming not be more efficient? All the time and power consoles would use to download a game gone, and all the idle time gone? I wonder is one to many Vs one to one would be better

@deathaxe Very true... though Google Pharma will probably last 1-2 years before being axed and leaving patients without medicine!

@Voltan During the early stages of Stadia development somebody should have warned Google that some day somebody named Voltan w/ an avatar pic of a baby elephant seal was going to be calling their marketing strategy "kinda weird" and maybe they would have taken the hint. 😉

@rjejr Not gonna lie, I don't know what that picture is but what I would like to know is how does one post pictures here

I don't like Google at all as company but I do feel bad for the creative people and devs that this news affects. I'm sure those people that leave will find work at better game companies.

@Voltan re: Picture posting:

Hard to describe w/o invoking it but I'll try.

[img] at the beginning than copy and paste the link to the pic on the internet, sorry I don't know how to do it off of your own device, then follow it w/ [img] again but put a forward slash / between the [ and the i.

I dont' know what that pic is either, came up when I google searched Voltan, though ti was Voltron related. Here's the link if you want to copy and paste to practice.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3471512456_16.jpg

Ah, so it's regular BBCode. Good to know, thanks
This is where "Voltan" comes from, btw (it's pretty bad): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080846/

@themightyant How cheap can a months membership for the latest games be though? How are they going to get all the companies on board and paid?
The only way I can think is the microsoft plan, one company devouring the rest, but even then, i can't see how a monthly subscription alone could provide us with the same amount of games and choice that we get at the moment.
I guess it'd end up in the same situation as video streaming, many different companoes offering different subscriptions, and you'd have to subscribe to the lot to get the full experience. And those fees would almost certainly be at least twice the price of tv subscriptions, just because of the processing power each active user requires.
And most peoples internet simply isn't good enough for your average family. I gave streaming a go, and immediately had my brother complaining at me because it put his counterstrike ping through the floor.
If you have an internet to yourself sure, but most.dont nowadays.

@danlk1ng.... LMAO "Best comment of the article"

We all knew Google drop all their endeavors as soon as they don't become market hits when they launch

@Grimwood... The Point is that anything that is not Gmail, Gmaps, Google search has fallen flat on its face and failed dismally and we mean everything.

If we lose any one of either 3 then Google will start to go down

@Keyblade-Dan... I bet she feels pissed right now, same as Amy Henning after leaving Naughty Dog

@Juanalf..... Google Stadia promised her Cory Barlogs' position

@Number09..... Well this must be very concerning news for Xbox GAMEPASS model.
I am definitely sure this does not sit well with investors which means there will be less of a push for streaming this Gen, which means once again MS betted on the wrong horse and are royally *****....... Excuse my Japanese

@GREGORIAN just to inform you that comment raised a chuckle 😊......I feel this Gen is tip toeing towards online only/streaming and this is just a hiccup the powers that be are using the "Softly, softly, catchee monkey" philosophy to gain control of a lucrative market........I tip my hat in your direction and bid you a good day Sir.

There's no doubt streaming is the future. It happened to music, it happened to films and tv, and it will happen to games. I praise Google for trying to take the next step. Yes, they love your data, but who can image a world without Google, or Android? At least they (try to) make useful applications, unlike all the facebooks outthere imo. I mean Google earth was just brilliant. Oh...does it show im a stakeholder?