Google’s game streaming platform, Stadia, has now reportedly been “deprioritised” as well as them having a “reduced interest” in gaining blockbuster titles for the service. They have now centred their focus on selling the services’ technology to third-party companies.
Stadia has had a rocky life cycle so far with the company announcing its decision to close its internal game development studios just 14 months after its launch. Even though it received a lot of praise for its streaming capabilities, there were many reports claiming that Stadia was missing its monthly active users target by thousands.
Throughout 2021 Google insisted that Stadia was “alive and well” and did a lot to support this in many ways such as having it available on Chromecast, releasing time limited demos on the platform and also using revenue schemes for developers but now a new report by Business Insider suggests that the company has “deprioritised” the service internally. Fewer than 20% of Stadia’s team are said to now be on the consumer platform with the remainder of the team focusing on tech sales.
Business Insider has also stated that the majority of the Stadia team is focussed on establishing white-labels deals for its tech, choosing to target companies both within and outside gaming under its new name, Google Stream.
It has been rumoured that Google have been in discussions with Capcom regarding supplying its technology to them, allowing the publisher to stream demo titles from their own website. It’s also rumoured that the same talks have been had with Bungie, though due to Sony’s recent acquisition of the company, it’s unclear what will be the outcome.
It’s also unclear as to what will happen with the Stadia platform. Google released a statement to Business Insider and claimed to be “still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022” announcing they’re bringing a further 100 games to the platform. With a current 200 game library, it’s clear to see that people are still very much interested in Stadia with a source telling Business Insider “There are plenty of people internally who would love to keep [Stadia] going, so they are working really hard to make sure it doesn’t die, but they’re not the ones writing the checks.”
One thing is for certain, 2022 is going to be an interested year for Google and Stadia alike.
