We Were Scared Of Google Stadia For All Of The Wrong Reasons

thegamer.com:

When Google Stadia was first revealed at GDC 2019 it felt like a turning of the tide. There was a lingering unease in the air that this could spell the end of traditional platforms forever, with Google having the capital and expertise to make cloud gaming a mainstream option for millions. On the surface it was destined to rule the world, yet it’s going to die with a whimper.

As Phil Harrison took to the stage and showcased Assassin’s Creed Odyssey running flawlessly across myriad devices it felt like the future, a step forward none of us were remotely ready for. It turns out that not even Google itself was prepared to roll out its ambitious vision, with the service set to be shut down in 2023 as every single piece of hardware and every digital purchase is refunded.

Related: An Obituary For Overwatch

Billions were spent for nothing, and the idea that we once viewed Stadia as an encroaching behemoth bound to swallow this industry whole is quite ridiculous in hindsight. The platform was dead on arrival, lacking in features alongside a small library consisting of cloud ports that were mostly inferior to other platforms. Not to mention overpriced, with Google failing to acknowledge the fluidity of digital marketplaces as its own offering felt decades behind the curb. For a technology that claimed to usher in the future, everything about it felt archaic. Many expected it to be the Netflix of games, but it was just another digital marketplace.

While I don’t have exact figures, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has said that millions per title were spent on porting the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassin’s Creed, while it also tried to acquire major studios but seemingly couldn’t accrue much interest. Everything was a sunk