Google Stadia, “Alive And Well”

The corporate catfight that is the Apple Vs Epic or Epic Vs Apple case, what Tim Sweeney described as “not a billion-dollar company fighting a trillion-dollar company,” is a very interesting one. One for which the dirty laundry of the industry is being aired beautifully for all of us to see. The butch bloke that is Sony wears a frilly thong, Microsoft is wearing the what is described as a pair of Brazillian underwear, and Nintendo is wearing grey granny panties. Is there a fourth system to talk about? Well, one person believes so, while others do not.

When Tim Sweeney was probed last week by lawyers if he thought Google Stadia was in existence today, he replied, “My understanding is that after a public launch, Google Stadia has been very significantly scaled back.” However, in the same week, GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Nate Ahearn, lead of developer marketing at Stadia. He said that platform was “alive and well.” then went on to highlight that the system has added 100 games this year alone, “I’d tell any non-believers to take notice of how we’re continuing to put our words into action, as we grow the Stadia Makers program and partner with AAA studios like Capcom, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and others.”

Is that what is going to sell the Stadia platform to someone? The same publishers and developers you can get on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and on the Nintendo Switch, are the selling points to a system that I’m spoken about several times as being questionable at best. When asked for more detail on this, Ahearn stated that Google is “focused on delivering value for our partners and on behalf of our players.” He then pointed to the release of Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 7, and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order onto Stadia. Resident Evil 7 released in 2017 on other platforms, Fallen Order onto most platforms in 2019, and Village released on all other platforms the same day as Stadia.

So what is the advantage there? The lack of having to download the game, not having to insert a disc, or the fact that if your internet drops you’ll be unable to play on Stadia? I’ve said it before, but I don’t like this idea that Stadia is a perfect system for Google’s target market in the United States. The infrastructure isn’t there to keep a stable connection. Not that Europe is much better, but the home market is crucial for Stadia. At this point Stadia is nothing but a joke, as proven by Google’s own indifference to its store. Google, known for being a synonym for searching something on the internet, didn’t think to add a search bar to the Stadia store until 16 months after its launch.

I’m not saying Stadia is dead, just that it is bleeding out on the carpet slowly and I don’t want to shoot it in the head. I already have to replace the carpet, I don’t want to ruin a very fine throw cushion in the process. That is a grotesquely horrible way of saying that the system isn’t directed at anyone other than a select few, but Google believes everyone is that select few. Much like PlayStation VR, which doesn’t work as it is running on systems that are unable to keep a constant frame rate at such high resolutions that you require for VR. Google closing internal studios of development and the mass exodus from Google of late should be concerning that the carpet is being turned red.