Google Stadia is subtly reinventing itself to attract new games and gamers

theverge.com:

Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service didn’t stick the landing, and it’s been a rough ride since. But today, at the Google for Games Developer Summit, it feels like Stadia might be moving in a promising direction — one that gives both gamers and game developers a reason to pay attention. And the magic word is “free.” Free demos, free trials, free for developers to offer, and hopefully free of the friction that made Stadia a difficult investment to start.

I want to start off with something I wrote last February, when I explained how Google had drastically reduced its Stadia ambitions from what was effectively “become a game company” to “offer a white-label service to game publishers” instead. I wrote:

There’s nothing inherently wrong with white-labeling.

Done properly, it might even unlock one of the most magical things about cloud gaming: the ability to instantly try a game no matter where you are. While companies like Google already claim games are “instantly available,” what they really mean is “after you sign up, log in, and sometimes buy a game.” That’s partly due to the complex web of licensing agreements that game publishers make cloud services sign. But if game publishers were in charge of their own games, they might feel differently. They could give you Gaikai-esque instant access game demos again, ones where you could tap a YouTube advertisement for a game and actually start playing it, no friction whatsoever.

Everything Google is announcing today points Stadia in that general direction.

This year, Google will:

The pitch, in short, sounds like this: For developers, it’s free and easy to bring your games to Google’s cloud platform and put them in front of anyone instantly. For gamers, Stadia is now a place to