The video game industry is a multi-billion dollar business. People spend near-countless dollars trying to enjoy their gaming fix between video games and the consoles being used. But with the industry lasting decades, there would always be legendary highs and soul-crushing lows. For every PlayStation 2, there was going to be the Nintendo CD-i; for every Nintendo Switch, there was going to be an Xbox Kinect. Now, a fair note would be for every successful next-gen console; there is a Google Stadia because that system will shut down next January. Due to this, a great irony can now occur.
How so? On Twitter, a man named Frank Cifaldi made a post that got many people’s attention. He noted that at GDC, when they unveiled the Google Stadia, Google made a display that read “Anything you can dream, you can build.” A nice slogan. The display that this logo was upon featured three legendary video game failures in the forms of the E.T. Atari game that broke the American gaming industry in the early 80s, the Nintendo Power Glove that never took off despite being used in a movie, and the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast sunk SEGA to a level that they never made consoles again. The display was ironic then, and it’s even more ironic now.
That brings us back to Frank Cifaldi, who revealed that he was the one who provided the three items for Google to display that day, and he’s put them up for auction! They are on eBay right now with pictures showing off the three items up close and in a unified shot. It also helps set the scene for what happened on that infamous day back in 2019.
“Through a series of mishandlings, miscommunications, misunderstandings and other general mishaps, the grand unveiling of Google’s now-doomed gaming service was stationed next to…three of the most famous commercial failures in video game history. Now these failures can be YOUR failures!”
If you think someone out there wouldn’t want such items, the current bit at this article’s posting is over $2000. That honestly isn’t too surprising for the simple reason that these three items are in excellent condition and are a part of gaming history.
Frank notes on the eBay page that all of the proceeds from the sale will go to a gaming charity he runs, one that seeks to preserve the history of video games.
In many ways, this auction is an excellent allegory for what happened with Google Stadia. It was an attempt to be an innovation, but it didn’t learn from the past. Nor did it fully understand how to showcase what it wanted to be and thus muddled its message.
Source: eBay
