Google’s video game streaming platform (which no one spoke ill of) will officially no longer be available in January 2023.
Sometimes I don’t understand Google. In fact it is that sometimes i get mad at google. And unfortunately today is one of those days, because it is done very difficult no longer to give up a service like Stadiawhich actually worked very well, but the hardest thing is to trust again in the giant of Mountain View.
And it is that the truth is not only that Google has loaded Stadia prematurely, something predictable given the latest events and that Stadia has been reeling since last year, rather it is that Google had sworn to us actively and passively that Stadia was not going to closethat its foundations were solid and that “they would always be working to bring more great games to the platform and to Stadia Pro”.
It’s official: Google will shut down Stadia on January 18, 2023, and I can only feel sadness.
Today those declarations are boring water, because Stadia was doomed since the departure of Jade Raymondfamous video game producer, and product manager John Justicetwo very important casualties that opened waterways that were ultimately insurmountable for a project ahead of its time. Perhaps here, in that statement, is the key to everything…!
For my part, I have to admit that I feel sorry for the end of Google Stadia and that is why I have decided to write this epilogue, and that is I don’t know anyone who complained about Stadia as a service nor of its operation, possibilities and options, although Google affirms that “didn’t gain the traction among users that we expected”.
It has already amply demonstrated it to us: Google knows how to make good products, both software and hardware, but selling them well is something else and it’s not their thing…
Google Stadia worked really well
For me the idea of Stadia as “entertainment collection” I loved it, in fact its concept was pioneering and none of the other video game platforms in streaming has equaled what for me was the best staging: Allow us to buy games without the need for hardware, and play them on almost any device.
This is something that no other platform offers us without subscriptions, and that is that the Stadia key was precisely thatthat Stadia Pro only enabled free games and access to a larger collection with a monthly payment, but in reality you or any other player could buy any title directlywithout prior payments and without the need for physical consoles or powerful PCs, to play it later streaming from any screen.
The Stadia gamepad, soon a paperweight at 0 cost.
And it is true that other services such as Nvidia GeForce Now offer compatibility with other systems like Steam, and even Microsoft with Xbox Game Pass offers a collection of more than 100 games accessible by subscription, but it is also true that neither works to the same quality standards than Stadia in terms of content display, latencies, and wait times.
The only reality is that Stadia worked very well, really well in factand I have not found anyone who tried the service and who was not surprised precisely by how well it worked, stating that indeed this was the future and that the idea of not having to buy a console was cool.
No one spoke ill of Stadia. No one. Another thing is that they paid for Stadia Pro. But was that Google’s idea from the beginning or was it to create “an entertainment collection” accessible from the cloud?
Stadia’s basic endowment: a Chromecast Ultra and a controller. No more.
Stadia’s problem was Google Stadia: it came too soon and its creator is Google
At this point I am quite clear the main problems of Google Stadiaand none of these problems are focused on the functionality of the service.
The first of them was from times, and it is that reach the video game industry in a transition stage between generations of game consoles has made Stadia born with an outdated game catalog, that many users had already played on their consoles previously and that they were not going to buy again. Also, they were Sony and Xbox, above all, very jealous of their franchises for its new consoles, thus ensuring that Stadia did not have flashy releases apart from the reviled Cyberpunk, which in the end worked better on Stadia than on any other device.
Nevertheless, Stadia’s biggest problem is that it was born ahead of time and did it at Google’s houseas Google Wave was passed at the time, now recognized as a great embryo and precursor of what today are professional collaborative tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and the like, but misunderstood in its day and quickly abandoned by an always impatient Google.
Stadia’s biggest problem has been being born before its time and within an always impatient Google, which has not wanted to wait for a future where Stadia would undoubtedly compete with the best online platforms from Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox.
And it is this impatience that makes me restless, because it is very difficult to trust Google after seeing how a project like Stadia loads that was really good, and they know that in a few years it will be the future of a sector where they have been first. And I don’t care if its technology is used for other things like augmented reality, or to be sold to the highest bidder to improve future Sony PlayStation or Microsoft Xbox services, because Stadia had tour and there was no need to waste money.
And it is that the end of Stadia, in the end, is a huge waste for Google, which also plans to return all the money from the purchased games and also from the hardware. So and to conclude, if Google wants to give me back the dough welcome be the pasta, at least I’ll just feel cheated but not stolen… Bad Google. Today ALL bad.
