Google Exec Blames Lack of Games, Microsoft Windows for Stadia's Demise

pcmag.com:

Google blames the failure of its Stadia game-streaming service on a lack of quality games. 

“Stadia’s lack of important AAA content created a self-sustaining cycle whereby players would not subscribe to Stadia because of the lack of AAA games, and in turn many AAA game developers would not develop games for Stadia due to its small user,” Google Director of Product Management Dov Zimring said in a statement submitted as part of the FTC v. Microsoft case.

The agency is trying to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard over its potential impact on both the console market and cloud gaming. As 9to5Google reports, Zimring's comments are part of a trove of confidential documents detailing Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox that were recently dumped online.

In his statement, Zimring goes over the various reasons why Google shut down Stadia in January, “a significant one being the cost and difficulty of securing content to offer to Stadia users,” he said. 

The lack of games for Stadia was no secret to industry watchers and users. Still, Zimring’s comments shed some light on how Microsoft’s Windows played a role in Stadia’s demise. 

According to Zimring, Google was well aware it needed a large catalog of games, including the latest titles, for Stadia to succeed, citing the company’s own market research and consumer surveys. But doing so was easier said than done. 

A big challenge was on the technology side. Stadia’s cloud servers ran on an open-source version of Linux and the Vulkan graphics API to enable greater flexibility and customization to realize Google’s vision for the game-streaming service.

“One negative consequence of this decision was that it increased the cost for external game studios to build games and port