I’ve been one to partake in a bit of the good old “New technology? hogwash! It will never work, it doesn’t have incentives for players and the one releasing it doesn’t give it enough backing to be viable anyway. It’s stupid,” he says wearing Dicken’s era clothing and a woman in the background fainted like I’ve said something bad in a period drama. In short, I’m not a fan of the Google Stadia and I don’t see it becoming the “future of gaming,” as some would gleefully put it. It turns out that a few others are catching on to my pessimistic nature too in the wake of its release last year.

Since its release, we’ve reported on three new titles, my editorial about how in a few months Google will drop it like a clumsy parent does with a child, and nothing more. Just a few weeks ago, in February, Google announced five games for the platform, the first since adding three in December. The new Nvidia’s GeForce Now has also released in that short time, gone a bit cheaper, and doesn’t tether you to the TV anymore. I still have issues with “Cloud Gaming,” but now there is something at least pulling it forward instead of digging in its heels.

So, why does this matter? Well, over the last few days Google has gotten in a bit of bother as Business Insider has dug into the platform and had a rummage around. Ben Gilbert of the publication asked developers if there were incentives for them to do a port of their games to the platform. One developer said it was “kind of non-existent, that’s the short of it.” With only 4 of the paltry 28 games available being indie games, just showing there’s not enough backing on Google’s part.

Speaking with a publishing executive, Ben asked roughly the same thing again, this time “it’s that there isn’t enough money there,” and that it is “so low that it wasn’t even part of the conversation.” Of course, money isn’t the only reason developers and publishers wouldn’t look at the platform, but it is a large part of it. One would have to assume that the platform holders like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are much easier to work with and/or for. Not to mention the cut that Epic Games are giving developers for being on their store, and then if you’re using their engine you get a bit more of a cut. Then Steam allows anything and everything.

The biggest problems Google Stadia and Stadia developers have right now is the lack of a market to sell to. With a Nintendo console, you know there are sales no matter what because there’s a new version of a Zelda game being sold. With Sony you know there is at least 80 million sales on the table of the console alone. With Stadia, there just isn’t enough of a player base to keep the platform growing.

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