Earlier quoted context omitted.
Phil Spencer is XBOX, Phil Harrison is Google
Harrison was also formerly Xbox, but point taken and post updated!
Seems like anything he touches goes sideways. PS3, Xbox One and now Stadia.
Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
171–180 of 834 posts
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compelling to a significant demographic maybe? “Controversial” can include violent. Seems like those games tend to be technically amazing, as well as particularly entertaining / humorous if that’s your thing.
Exactly. Some of the best selling games are games like Call of Duty, GTA or Mortal Kombat. Any game like that would have a full on employee revolt as people demanded the team involved to be fired.
Google sells all of these games on Google Play without any form of "revolt" from their developers. So im not sure where you're getting this idea, other than baseless conjecture
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#173Typical Google half-assery. If they wanted Stadia to succeed, they should have been investing in game studios years before so at launch they would some games to demonstrate the concept of cloud gaming and actually drive sales. After all, it's really all about the games. And third-parties are never going to do it. But there was no plan. They just did it and hoped success would just happen.
Yeah, I feel like they should have looked how Microsoft more or less lucked out with Bungie producing a killer app for them. [1] Successfully creating a game service requires content, content, and more content.
That said, there's still space for Stadia's infrastructure to compete with Xbox/Azure.
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwqjg3/the-complete-untold-h...
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was recently an article about Stadia where a developer from a decent sized studio claimed they were approached by Google for Stadia. What did Google offer for the developer to bring the game to Stadia? Almost nothing. The figure was in the tens of thousands. For reference when Microsoft/Epic approaches the studios for games on their platforms they front the entire development cost. Sometimes millions of dollars…
Having been approached by Google for these kinds of projects, I 100% believe this. I was leading a team approached by them to do something similar for Google Glass. There was no real incentive there except the privilege of being an early glass partner. The entire process of working with them was a nightmare and we decided to bow out. I'm short on any attempt Google makes at being a media company.
Just to add general interest info to this strain of the conversation: I had to work with Apple in ensuring content for the launch of News+ in Canada after they bought out Next Issue/Texture, and they were very involved and the incentives were substantial.
It makes a real-world difference, there's no doubt about it. Hell, this is why governments issue arts funding. The return has virtually limitless potential in more than just the financial aspects. But it does take commitment, perseverance, and often, patience.
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw a talk about Lumberyard once. The really special things they wanted to do were integrate it tightly with AWS and Twitch, which enabled some neat features like letting people spectate games and move their own camera around the field to do so.
You cannot use service from any other cloud provider as your game backend if you use Lumberyard. https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/faq Q. Can my game use an alternate web service instead of AWS? No. By “alternate web service” we mean any non-AWS web service that is similar to or can act as a replacement for Amazon EC2, Amazon Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, Amazon EBS, Amazon EC2 Container Service, or…
AWS. Alternate Web Service. Heh.
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#176I was looking forward to seeing some of the games that would have only been possible on Stadia's architecture. Imagine a Battlefield-style game with a larger map and over 500+ simultaneous players. Hopefully the games that SG&E do finish showcase what's possible when a developer targets Stadia's strengths.
I just got into Planetside 2 and it's everything I wanted it to be.
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#177I know Google/Stadia recently partnered with LG to bundle the Stadia app with LG TVs, but I wonder why Google doesn't do this with every TV manufacturers (save Sony.) If I were Stadia's marketing chief, I'd 1. Bribe the TV manufacturers to include the Stadia app 2. Advertise that the TV includes _a game console_ during TV commercials. 3. Allow the TV users to pay a bit extra ($20?) to buy a basic game controller. 4.…
There was recently an article about Stadia where a developer from a decent sized studio claimed they were approached by Google for Stadia. What did Google offer for the developer to bring the game to Stadia? Almost nothing. The figure was in the tens of thousands. For reference when Microsoft/Epic approaches the studios for games on their platforms they front the entire development cost. Sometimes millions of dollars…
Given Goog's history on this, I read this announcement as them soft-killing Stadia. They aren't going to admit defeat, but unless they put real resources behind paying people to use it, they aren't going to see any use of it as an API and are effectively mothballing it.
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#178Anyone have insights into how Apple Arcade is doing? It seems to have a lot more games than Stadia, but the variety is limited and it's hard to see the compelling reason is to use it as opposed to simply getting games in the app store.
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was recently an article about Stadia where a developer from a decent sized studio claimed they were approached by Google for Stadia. What did Google offer for the developer to bring the game to Stadia? Almost nothing. The figure was in the tens of thousands. For reference when Microsoft/Epic approaches the studios for games on their platforms they front the entire development cost. Sometimes millions of dollars…
Having been approached by Google for these kinds of projects, I 100% believe this. I was leading a team approached by them to do something similar for Google Glass. There was no real incentive there except the privilege of being an early glass partner. The entire process of working with them was a nightmare and we decided to bow out. I'm short on any attempt Google makes at being a media company.
I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not. On one hand, it kind of fits my mental image of Google perfectly, I don't know why. On the other: doesn't Google have a shitload of money and doesn't Google burn it so often by starting hundreds of projects it just kills after a couple of years of development?
Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was recently an article about Stadia where a developer from a decent sized studio claimed they were approached by Google for Stadia. What did Google offer for the developer to bring the game to Stadia? Almost nothing. The figure was in the tens of thousands. For reference when Microsoft/Epic approaches the studios for games on their platforms they front the entire development cost. Sometimes millions of dollars…
> when Microsoft/Epic approaches the studios for games on their platforms they front the entire development cost We once had a Microsoft rep come visit us to get us to publish our upcoming mobile games for Windows Mobile Tablet notreallysurewhatwasthatanymore. When we asked what kind of support they were ready to provide, they offered to lend us a device for a few weeks. Of course it's not representative of how thing…
OK, but...
was that the end of the discussion? Was there, you know, pushback like "we want 10 devices each of the two most popular sizes, and exclusivity for xxx months, and, and..."
Or did everything just fizzle out after "well, we'll lend you the unit I have in the back of my car?"