I understand SG&E was burning cash and they want to focus on 3rd party development, but the look of killing SG&E kills all of Stadia's momentum at a time it was FINALLY gaining some.
It would make far more sense to slowly reduce the size of SG&E so that they can work on one pet project game. Something that shows off special features of Stadia. Release one game every couple of years. This reduces the cash burn and prevents the horrible optics. The only reason to completely kill it is if they plan on shuttering Stadia and selling or licensing the technology to other companies.
Or hopefully they have something up their sleeves! Hopefully LOL
If they had, you can be 100% sure they would've announced it. Whatever it was. Anything just to save the image.
They didn't, because they have nothing.
Exactly
Pet project games don't ring people's bells as far as exclusives go. As the release stated, "best in class" was the first party target.That's development time measured in years, not months. All of the Stadia specific features have been featured in 3rd party games. That's what the focus is on, Tickling 3rd parties to use Stadia. They will still act as a publisher as well, so things like Stadia Makers will continue.
That's why I said they could release a game every couple of years
Cause those are 2 different business.
They want to focus on the technology and the idea of Cloud Gaming and not losing time and money on having a Game Developing company/team.
I don't know why so much people think this is bad... i think its good. Now they can focus on the platform/service itself and help other dev companies to port/create games for Stadia.
Because it clearly shows that they are losing money and looking to cut cost barely a year after launch. Their statement that they are moving forward with cloud gaming technology doesn't inspire much confidence either, it's vague enough that it could mean simply licensing the technology out to other gaming companies.
Guy's... c'mon.. we are the FOUNDERS and at least we must hold the line of defense.
We know that the team has some problems with the communication and still believes in high value ads - okay its a business decision.
Well, I will stay with Stadia - the reasons a obvious:
- No dedicated "Gaming" Hardware
- Share games with the family
- Stream directly to YouTube!
- No Download
- No Updates
- Growing games bib. (see FIFA21 will finally come on 15.march.2021)
... and I believe they will add RTX support soon, as we know that they coop with AMD and also they want to focus "now" on this "Raytracing" stuff
(for me it isn't really important but the folks and haters out there are asking for it: so they will get it!)
Post with LoVe!
They I see this choice by the Stadia executive management is to ensure that the best possible quality of service is offered to the masses. Stadia doesn't suffer like past consoles (I.e. Dreamcast, Sega Saturn...etc) in that game development companies may not want to develop games for the platform, in fact quite the opposite. Stadia from what I can tell in interviews and developer releases actually makes it really easy for developers to apply a Gold version of their game to Stadia as well as others.
So this choice overall isn't a bad one for a very simple reason, if there are an abundance of game makers, then in away as disruptive as Stadia is its really no different then Netflix when it began focusing more on Streaming vs DVD. I remember the same argument being said that Netflix's Streaming platform would never go anywhere, however with a huge pool of movies and investment in technology, Netflix essentially took over and wiped out the DVD/Blue Ray competition and many followed afterwards once the technology was proven. However I dont think anyone will argue that Netflix is in danger of going anywhere now.
There are always going to die hard console players that want the physical disc but when those folks begin to realize the easy of access that Stadia also has and the ability to jump right in and play without the burden of patching, installing, or downloading, it will be a no brainer. So with all they naysayers saying this is a death blow to Stadia, they simply don't understand how Stadia has seemingly adopted a proven streaming business model that isn't to say later on down the road either through acquisition or by starting another development company that Stadia wont produce its own games. Right now however, this was a smart and prudent choice to grow the business.
I don't think that G ever planned to earn selling SG&E games. SG&E was there to showcase Stadia platform specific features. Now they'll have to pay third party developers to do that (this if they plan to implement new stadia features
).
This makes me nervous about the future of stadia. I’m still really looking forward to playing more games on Stadia. If anyone wants to add me for multiplayer games my user is Stoft#1402
Great marketing again. Stadia is slowly killing it self. It was going the right way but because this announcement lots will be afraid to invest in stadia. Google already had the name to kill things and now the make the feeling stronger because this announcement. Great job. I will go for ps5 xbox and will not invest and will see if it still exists if ps5 and xbox are end of life
Closing SG&E can't be seen as good news. It's bad. And for a lot of reasons.
We NEED SG&E back. Well, not us. Stadia NEEDS SG&D
One day, one cloud gaming Service will apear and lead all players.
Google is like: i dont have it, i want it!
After having it: borring
Nice post.
My counter question, why slow burn cash instead of ripping off the bandaid quickly? There's no guarantee any single game will be well accepted by the community.
The closure doesn't bother me; I feel it removes any potential conflict of interest in getting third-party games to come to the platform.
I also expect to see the "pet project games" come out through third-party licensing. Developers will inevitably come up with games that would work better with Stadia's few unique features.
The focus should be on bringing as many new, quality games and features to the platform which will naturally encourage members to join. On the development side they can instead support those who want to work with them to bring new content and partner with those companies for that development.
I expect Stadia to still invest in exclusives, and this has been consistently shown with special versions of games for the platform.
Having first pay games never had been an obstacle too be an interesting platform for this party developers. Absolutely all console manufacturers have first pay games. So it's proven that there is no conflict on that side.
Games industry is one of the most profitable right now. Making ganes is not burn cash, it's an inversion,. I'm fact there has been no time nor chance to burn anything as of now.
And for any business confidence is key. SG&E's existence shower Google trusted this platform. And that is the most important thing when you try to sell a product. Show you trust yourself. Now they have publicly started they don't think Stadia is worth their investment, why should anyone else do what Google doesn't want to?
Has anyone thought how much money did M$ lose when they entered the console business? How many years took them to make it profitable? Why should Google be different?