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[Kdad]

Google has a long and well-documented history of launching new services only to shut them down a few months or years later. And with the launch of Stadia imminent, one launch game developer has acknowledged the prevalence of concerns about that history among her fellow developers while also downplaying their seriousness in light of Stadia's potential.

"The biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear is Google is just going to cancel it," Gwen Frey, developer of Stadia launch puzzle game Kine, told GamesIndustry.biz in recently published comments.

Stadia launch dev: Game makers are worried “Google is just going to cancel it”

Kine maker thinks Google wants to start small, scale slowly.

arstechnica.com

 

[magnumpy]

a wasted opportunity. maybe they feel like they don't really need this, so are indifferent to whether it succeeds or fails

 

[johntown]

Canceling it is my biggest concern. If it is still around in 10 years then perhaps I will try it.

 

[SleepDoctor]

Wouldn't be surprised. Its almost like they're trying to sabotage themselves with all the shit news.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

I never had any intentions of trying it and a lot of my friends feel the same. We're just waiting for the next playstation.

 

[Salvatron]

a wasted opportunity. maybe they feel like they don't really need this, so are indifferent to whether it succeeds or fails

it's a valid concern. speaking as someone who was a big fan of google wave back in the day.

 

[Tesseract]

well yeah, you are working on projects behind a black hole amidst chaos and madness

expect the worst

 

[GymWolf]

Google would cancel his mother if she can't make money...

 

[-Arcadia-]

When you do nothing but spam new initiatives without thought constantly, then cancel nearly every single one of them, it’s a valid concern.

This lack of trust from customers and partners is well-earned.

 

[TTOOLL]

They will, in 2 or 3 years.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Streaming may be inevitable but it's not going to replace traditional console gaming. The fact is, gamers will continue to buy games digitally and download them even with faster internet, no matter how many times Google fans argue the convenience of services like Stadia. It's not going to be convenient when it goes offline.

 

[TylersProphecy4.0]

I'm not sure why google didnt go the subscription streaming route. I also fear that "buying" games for the stadia may leave me with absolutely nothing to show for it a few years down the road.

Stadia is definitely not for the collector like me, moreso the customer that looks at games as disposable entertainment. I still play atari and nes games though and I simply dont see that longevity in the stadia.

Sucks. Those pretty graphics sure are tempting.

 

[Blood Borne]

This is nothing but a little side project from Google. They had the tech and they said “fuck it, might as well just use it”. There’s no energy/passion in it. They’ll drop it like their other numerous failed projects.

Also, fuck cloud gaming.

 

[Ar¢tos]

I guess all the hardware used for Stadia can easily be reused for other services, so Google won't lose very much from shutting it down (a few millions are pennies for Google...).

 

[Lionel Richie]

No shit they're going to cancel it.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

I agree with all of this. With the stuff they're doing now with NEST products, abandoning Google Fiber in some areas, killing off INBOX, and a number of other things; I'm surprised that anyone would invest in a Google product.

 

[The Scrivener]

Suddenly Kine isn't available on the Google store...

 

[Dizzan]

I'm not sure why google didnt go the subscription streaming route. I also fear that "buying" games for the stadia may leave me with absolutely nothing to show for it a few years down the road.

Stadia is definitely not for the collector like me, moreso the customer that looks at games as disposable entertainment. I still play atari and nes games though and I simply dont see that longevity in the stadia.

Sucks. Those pretty graphics sure are tempting.

I agree. Stadia is not for you. It is for me. A very casual gamer who has limited gaming time. I barely have time to play new releases let alone old games and back catalogue. The convenience is too hard to pass up. In saying that, the subscription model would have been better and let's see if it even works as promised. The good thing is, the price of entry is cheap. Will give it a crack.

 

[Breakage]

The thing is they can cancel it and easily absorb the fail.

 

[zeorhymer]

Ouya 2.0 incoming?

 

[Sophist]

Google seems to be quite serious about Stadia, they engineered a whole set of custom hardware (controller, cpu, gpu, network chipset, ...)

 

[LittleBusters]

Google has excellent algorithms.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I mean, of course that's a worry. Google is committed to not committing to unprofitable ventures.

 

[mejin]

They have Phil as one the leaders, it will fail.

 

[newtypepilot]

Their launch lineup is utterly pathetic. This will be worse than the Ouya. It's an expensive streaming service aimed at the casuals, but not just any casuals. It's the 1% casuals who like to throw money away and have fast reliable unlimited internet.

 

[Fbh]

That's why I don't understand why they didn't go with a subscription.

Who wouldn't worry about buying full priced games for an online only service run by a company known for shutting down services after they don't meet their expectations.

 

[Saber]

Why shouldn't they?

It's not like they have something to lose, right?

 

[iconmaster]

It’ll get sunsetted. Only question is how quickly.

Worth perusing:

Killed by Google

Killed by Google is the open source list of dead Google products, services, and devices. It serves as a tribute and memorial of beloved services and products killed by Google.

killedbygoogle.com

 

[Kawika]

I don't want to shit on the guy but the track record of Phil Harrison attached to badly launched video game products is 2/2 the past two gens. His involvement is just an extra layer of my fear of google pulling the plug. Having his nice calm English accent telling you its going to be great lulls you into a false sense of trust, this should trigger your Lizard brain into realizing what exactly is going on behind the scenes.

 

[Ar¢tos]

They should hire Don Mattrick to make sure it succeeds for a couple of months .

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

This is born dead. They should cancel ot now to avoid the shame.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Dead within a year.

 

[TLZ]

Google have cancelled so much they're going to cancel themselves soon.

Possibly a sign they're managed by cancel culture.

 

[nkarafo]

Well, they don't have to make ports or exclusives for it, it's not a game system with it's own hardware, it will use PC ports. It's not like they will waste time and money working on it, so i don't know what they are worried about. It doesn't make any difference for them if it lives or dies.

 

[Fake]

Not saying Google have a historic of canceling their our product...

 

[TylersProphecy4.0]

I agree. Stadia is not for you. It is for me. A very casual gamer who has limited gaming time. I barely have time to play new releases let alone old games and back catalogue. The convenience is too hard to pass up. In saying that, the subscription model would have been better and let's see if it even works as promised. The good thing is, the price of entry is cheap. Will give it a crack.

Go for it, man! When you post reactions, be sure to list where you live (generally) and your isp. I wanna know specifics when it comes to stadia as to whether or not it works where I live. I'm not sold against it, just very...apprehensive considering I'd still have to pay full price for games.

Who knows, maybe theyll have crazy steam sales all the time and I'll bite the bullet.

Either way, I hope stadia works out for you!!!

 

[Shifty]

They should hire Don Mattrick to make sure it succeeds for a couple of months .

Time to pivot into TV TV TV TV TV and turn it into a netflix competitor.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Time to pivot into TV TV TV TV TV and turn it into a netflix competitor.

They already stream video.

 

[FranXico]

"The biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear is Google is just going to cancel it," Gwen Frey, developer of Stadia launch puzzle game Kine, told GamesIndustry.biz in recently published comments.

 

[Jtibh]

Dead within a year.

You mean this year. Dead within this year.

 

[SLB1904]

I don't really care for streaming right now

 

[Shifty]

They already stream video.

 

[cireza]

Google has excellent algorithms.

Cancel algorithms.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Ouya 2.0 incoming?

They bumped up the release for the Atari VCS?

Wait...that's actually an insult to the Ouya. Didn't think I'd ever say that one day, but here we are.

Anyway, I don't see Stadia making any impact. Too much bad news, not enough infrastructure around (particularly in the U.S) to support reliable bandwidth speeds to the population, and a kinda shitty business model. It's DOA.

 

[SidViscous]

I mentioned Stadia to the Mrs, and my Vita chuckled from under 10cm of dust.

Make of that what you will.

 

[oagboghi2]

Google should have released next-gen hardware that is similar to the PS5/SCARLETT, and had stadia streaming as a service. from day one People would be far more likely to believe they are real competition if their was a solid physical product out there, along with a strong marketing push.

 

[Dizzan]

Go for it, man! When you post reactions, be sure to list where you live (generally) and your isp. I wanna know specifics when it comes to stadia as to whether or not it works where I live. I'm not sold against it, just very...apprehensive considering I'd still have to pay full price for games.

Who knows, maybe theyll have crazy steam sales all the time and I'll bite the bullet.

Either way, I hope stadia works out for you!!!

I'm in Australia so I get to sit back and see how it performs in other regions before biting.

Hoping it performs well. I have pretty good internet speeds despite living in Australia which is notorious for shit speeds.

 

[Stuart360]

I cant believe this is almost out and i see no hype or people talking about it or anyhting online or in the real world. I mean i expect this to flop long term, but i still expected a little bit of hype and excitement over it, even if for me i hate streaming.

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

They ARE going to cancel it. So good work, developers. Very wise.

 

[iconmaster]

Entertaining twitter thread: