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Google Axing Gaming Ambitions?
The company shuts down their Stadia Game Development Studios
Google announced this week that they are shutting down their game development operations. Some are seeing this as a massive downgrade of the company’s ambition in the gaming arena. Computer games have taken off in the lockdown era with Microsoft, EA, etc posting impressive gains. Even Amazon has stepped in with their Luna service.
Google’s Stadia was supposed to be a Netflix-like service where subscribers could play games streamed from their servers. Google was aiming to have an in-house studio to develop games that would really shine with their Linux based multi-server approach similar to Netflix Originals.
When Google originally announced Stadia, it seemed like it could offer a real alternative to the console arms race. Rather than buying a $500 console every few years, you could leverage the power of Google’s servers and your own fast broadband connection. A casual gamer like me could keep up without spending thousands on a new PC, or hundreds on a new console, every few years. And with Stadia Pro, there was the promise of a Netflix-for-gaming library of titles I could dip in and out of, plus the retail store for anything I was desperate to play at launch. — Daniel Cooper in Engadget
