Google has a long history with failed gaming products, as the tech giant aims to continuously evolve with the times in an effort to always stay at the cutting edge of technology. The infamous Google Graveyard has more than 200 entries at the time of writing, and signs show that its gaming streaming service Stadia might be en route there.
The Google Stadia model, just like many products in the Graveyard, seemed promising at first and one that should suit great for a company with as deep a pocket as Google. However, the company has recently announced that all of its first-party studios would stop receiving investment and that the service would just be a means to stream supported third-party games–a far cry from that which was promised. While there is a slim chance that Google may turn the tides for Stadia in the foreseeable future, its “failures” stem from a single overarching issue.
Google Stadia was the company’s greatest step towards really finding its foot in the games industry, and speculations before the announcement of the service were mostly positive. Many thought a giant like Google would certainly have the resources and talent to make a mark on the industry.
The initial premise was promising, as streaming games through the cloud is becoming more viable with every passing day. However, Google rushed the service out as fast as possible which did hold a lot of implications that ultimately contributed to its downfall. Stadia didn’t have much to show for itself except for the technology, as there weren’t many games available on the service. Google dumped a significant chunk of its budget on bringing third-party games on the service, such as the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 which reportedly cost tens of millions of dollars.
In addition to this, Google promised exclusive titles for the service and fans did receive a meddling stealth-horror game in the form of Gylt. The game was fine in its own right, sitting at a mediocre 68 on MetaCritic but isn’t a compelling reason to jump onto the service. The lack of third-party support coupled with a weak lineup of exclusives is a big chunk of why Stadia never managed to get a strong footing, despite what seemed to be a viable option to play games. And this seems to fall in line with how its deep pockets failed to adequately support games.
When Google Stadia was announced back during the Game Developers Conference 2019, it showed a fantasy of hassle-free streaming which would usher in a new era of gaming. The service was touted to be an integral part of the Google ecosystem in the near future, as players would be able to stream from almost any device and join games from a YouTube stream with the single press of a button. In addition to this, Google also promised a lot of things such as resolutions up to 8K and framerates up to 120 fps, but never really delivered on either.
Doom Eternal was showcased to be running at 4K 60fps, but the original release had it upscaled from a render resolution of just 1080p. This was a similar case to Destiny 2, which also ran at lower visual settings than promised. This also extends to the first-party titles, as Google promised 10 unnamed exclusives for the platform which were scheduled to be released last year.
Google will continue to support Stadia for the foreseeable future as the company claims it still believes in the service, and it would be great to see the service thrive and eventually become a great alternative to console gaming. However, doing so would require a major rework of the platform and its model, which Google needs to do at the earliest if it doesn’t want the product to be a part of its infamous Graveyard.
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