Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#191

Post by wronglebowski » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

lrae wrote: post #162

Jare wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Yeah, not sure where the idea comes from that Microsoft fronts like the entire development cost for ... for what even? As a publisher? Sure, maybe. For games coming to Game Pass? No. Same for the EGS, it's not like they front all those games. (Most exclusivity is bought way later in the process.) But the original comment is pretty much Windows Phone back then. To this day I have no idea why Microsoft was so cheap and…

My point of reference here is from this twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/RaveofRavendale/status/13094734056039096...

"With Nowhere Prophet, it was an interesting case because we were also launching on Xbox Game Pass at the same time, which had essentially already secured financial success for the console versions"

Not exclusive, still got a significant chunk of cash.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#192

Post by hobofan » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #34

Until you can play your Steam game library (and perhaps Epic and Unisoft and GOG) on Stadia, I think they'll struggle. I have paid for Geforce Now which does let you play Steam et al games (although not everything is available which is annoying) - it is about £4 a month currently (or free if you can spend time waiting to play) and the experience feels largely the same to Stadia to me in terms of latency and quality.…

Yeah, Google doesn't offer enough of an edge that would justify ignoring Steam.

Similar to your experience with Geforce Now, I had a great experience with shadow.tech, where you can bring your Steam library, and I'm sure there are many more competitors.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#193

Post by alasdair_ » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #134

ljm wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google basically sounds like a large scale startup incubator where every successful project is doomed to fail.

There's only two outcomes: Either Google gets bored and kills it because it doesn't generate ten billion dollars a year in profit or it becomes so ingrained in our society killing it might cause an angry mob to attack Google HQ with torches and pitchforks. Why it can't spin these side projects off into their own companies to survive or die on their own merits I don't know.

> Why it can't spin these side projects off into their own companies to survive or die on their own merits I don't know.

They do sometimes. Niantic (Pokemon Go) used to be part of Google Maps (well, Geo) and they spun out completely.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#194

Post by Nullabillity » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:49 PM UTC

Eridrus wrote: post #97

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #60

I just don't see the value add of stadia. Can someone explain? Why would a gamer choose it over a PS5 or Xbox?

It's a lot cheaper. You can imagine the cost getting down to basically the cost of the controller if users already have a streaming device (eg Chromecast) capable of running the streaming client. Putting aside Cyberpunk's overall problems, it performed a lot better on Stadia than last gen hardware https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/10/22167303/cyberpunk-2077-...

You're still paying for the hardware somehow, even if it's not in your home.

Theoretically nobody's going to play 24/7 so you could share the hardware between multiple customers, but in practice latency means that your DCs need to be close to them anyway.

The only way Stadia (or some other bullshit like it) could possibly be cheaper would be:

1. Price dumping

2. Preferential game pricing from publishers (to instead hide the hardware costs there)

3. Gym model (tricking casual users into signing long and expensive contracts)

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#195

Post by ocdtrekkie » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:51 PM UTC

bastawhiz wrote: post #185

I'm dumbfounded at Google's lack of planning on this. I tried Stadia, and they had (have?) so few games that they seem to have neither search nor pagination on the list that you can play. None of the games are ones that I care about. It feels like they could have—at the cost of short-term profit and pride—partnered with Valve and shipped something mind-blowing. But instead we're left with a bunch of AAA games that fe…

Everyone knew this was a bad idea, and the truly curious thing is, how does anyone who greenlit this on any level still have a job?

Stadia had a narrow set of interesting use cases around features deeply integrated with Google products: Zero of them were ready for launch, and I think all but one are still unavailable today.

The value for gamers is debateable at best, but exclusive titles would be the only serious way to draw a bunch of people to Stadia outside of that... and if Google is unable to make the business justification to develop Stadia exclusives, neither will anyone else.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#196

Post by sagarm » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

breakfastduck wrote: post #118

liaukovv wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine buying health insurance from someone for whom it's a hobby.

I get the point you're trying to make, but actually your example is one where I wouldn't mind. I'd rather my bad health not be the central profit driver for someone...

Health insurance companies are allowed to make a certain percentage of profit, so they actually don't have a strong incentive to keep payouts down.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#197

Post by cryptoquick » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

bastawhiz wrote: post #185

I'm dumbfounded at Google's lack of planning on this. I tried Stadia, and they had (have?) so few games that they seem to have neither search nor pagination on the list that you can play. None of the games are ones that I care about. It feels like they could have—at the cost of short-term profit and pride—partnered with Valve and shipped something mind-blowing. But instead we're left with a bunch of AAA games that fe…

Why are people still so surprised when Google makes a thing and then two years later cuts apart the thing into oblivion? How many more times are they expecting their users to be Charlie Brown to their Lucy?

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#198

Post by rco8786 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

This is totally the right move. I am a (very happy) user of Stadia. If you haven't tried it, you really should...it's an amazing piece of tech. I can find myself with 20-30 minutes worth of downtime during the day, fire up Cyberpunk 2077 or Hitman or Assassin's Creed in moments from my browser *on a macbook* and play at high settings with no noticeable lag.

Obviously you need a strong, steady internet connection for Stadia to shine, but I'd guess that the HN crowd skews towards that.

If you're an old gamer who wants to play newer games but doesn't have a ton of time and don't want to drop $1k+ on a gaming rig, check out Stadia.

The game library does leave a lot to be desired, no question about that. But this decision seems to be the right move to mitigate that by giving developers better access to getting their games on Stadia rather than Google trying to be both the platform and the content.

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#199

Post by _zamorano_ » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

bastawhiz wrote: post #185

I'm dumbfounded at Google's lack of planning on this. I tried Stadia, and they had (have?) so few games that they seem to have neither search nor pagination on the list that you can play. None of the games are ones that I care about. It feels like they could have—at the cost of short-term profit and pride—partnered with Valve and shipped something mind-blowing. But instead we're left with a bunch of AAA games that fe…

I don't think they had the slightest chance of Valve partering with them

Re: Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus

#200

Post by cryptoquick » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

Imagine it being a banner year for PC gaming during a pandemic, and then shutting down your cloud gaming service. It's almost like Google can easily make their money elsewhere, so they don't have to make their money any other way, or even put in the work to make it work.