There was no single reason to explain this, rather there was a whole cycle, something like the whiteness biting its own tail: fewer players attract fewer AAA games, which attract fewer players…
It’s been almost a year since we were left without Stadia and without much explanation from Google which, once again, He didn’t know how to make a business that looked like a huge success profitable or sustainable.service approx Connected Before his time, and obviously by extension, The future of the video game industry.
It was not a surprise because Google had already been warning for months about closing its studies Stadia games and entertainmentalthough in reality we all keep it Some hope Google will find a way Which may still be the case today Best platform flow video games Which existed for quality and concept.
Maybe that’s why we all wanted to know The real reasons used by Google’s leadership to kill the Stadia service Without any consideration, something that was hitherto a taboo in Mountain View, which never wanted to provide us with details or reliable information on this subject. At least for now, that is Dov Zimring, former Stadia product managerRevealed a lot of interesting things about the closure of Stadia.
There is never one reason, but rather several factors combined
As our colleagues told us 9to5GoogleSudden closure of stadiums It did not happen for a specific reason, but rather due to several factors Which influenced the final decision, motivated by whom a “Self-Sustainability Course” Lack of matches and players Which made the platform’s continuity unviable.
It’s a bit like a whiting biting its tail, and here’s why Lack of players on Stadia Motivate the big developers of the industry They didn’t hold their best AAA title To the platform Connected From Google who At the same time, it had no options or motives to impress more users. And convert them into subscribers beloved.
In fact, according to Dov Zimring himself, it will already be in 2021 Stadia’s viability has been reviewed by Google He planned his business, and decided at that time to finish his studies. Stadia games and entertainment And Significantly reduce your subscriber target. In addition, the functionality has also been improved An immersive stream of gaming Which allowed any development company Use Stadia as a white-labeled service where you can play game demossomething that only AT&T and Capcom have used for some time.
Even with this drastic drop in expectations and the expected reach of the service, Stadia has not been able to attract enough subscribers to maintain a viable business. There was no clear path to reaching a sustainable critical mass of subscribers, so Google decided on September 29, 2022 that Stadia would have to shut down in January 2023.
Interesting data are also extracted from Zimring’s statements, such as: Stadia had a small 10% share of the cloud gaming marketAnd that certainly was The only platform designed 100% for Connected Without the need for additional devices Game board And Chromecast.
In addition, it seems that Stadia only had 750,000 subscribers globally In its early days, it was well short of the target of 1,000,000, while… All analysts paint completely negative numbers For Google platform.
To the former Stadia Product Manager, The main reason for Stadia’s lack of success was this negative spiral Getting out of it was very complicated:
Developers with the most valuable video game content have made it clear that their decision to port a game to a new platform like Stadia will always be due to the growth potential of their games on that platform. Thus, the lack of major AAA content on Stadia has created a self-sustaining cycle where players will not subscribe to Stadia due to the lack of AAA games, and in turn many AAA game developers will not develop titles for Stadia due to its small size. User base.
The Stadia gamepad can now be opened to play on any console or PC.
Stadia wasn’t even attractive to the industrySince developers were not willing to work on a platform with such a small market share, Nor for the playerswho, due to the lack of high-quality games, were reluctant to enter the service as subscribers.
It’s so strange to know that now Activision has been in talks with Google Stadia Long before Microsoft wanted to acquire it, it had been regularly requesting platform numbers and data from Google although the decision to enter was not always made due to… “Low number of subscribers”. Zimring says Microsoft’s purchase of Activision will do a lot It is difficult for any existing or emerging platform to attract users and compete Against Microsoft services themselves.
We already know that Stadia struggled to stay awake until the final dayThe numbers of players were not good to maintain the platform, and there was no concrete plan to get out of that spiral into hell. now, Google is working on other projects like Play Games on Windows or YouTube GamesAlthough many of us miss Stadia and its concept… Will it ever come back in some form, even if it’s not from Google?
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