RIP GOOGLE STADIA

RIP Google Stadia

Online games news Tedious Retro Gamer, 20-05-2021
Online Games Bay

It may come as complete shock to you, but Google, a company that started and buried dozens of new projects in last 20 years, is about to do it again. This time it will be their half-hearted venture into cloud gaming field, Google Stadia, which looks more and more like ghost ship.

After another news about key figures leaving Google Stadia, a cloud gaming project that premiered just 18 months ago, it is hard to find anyone, who would actually be surprised. Google has long, long, long list of projects that were suppose to revolutionize our lives, but were scrapped long before they could make any serious impact. Remember Google Glass? They do actually exist, you know. It’s just no one really cares that they do exist. And story of Google Stadia is pretty much the same.

In May 2021 at least six key figures in Stadia project left Google, including John Justice (the vice-president of Stadia), Sebastien Puel (general manager), Corey May (head of creative services and publishing), not to mention Jade Raymond (head of Stadia Games and Entertainment) who left in March 2021, soon after Stadia Games and Entertainment studios were shut down.

Google stated in wake of these events that Stadia is "alive and well", how Nate Ahearn (developer marketing lead) told GamesIndustry.biz, with significant plans for expansion in 2021. It is really hard to believe if platform that failed to attract any attention so far, would suddenly flourish in the future, especially taking under consideration how fastidious Google can be. On the other hand Google Stadia recently received significant improvement to their inteface in form of a search bar (yes, after just 18 months of existence), so... who knows?

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