Current Events > Google Stadia exec says Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda is why they gave up

(+) Yeah! (+)

developing games

https://kotaku.com/stadia-leadership-praised-development-studios-for-great-1846281384

Its still not clear exactly why Google decided to abandon the first-party studios it started building up less than two years earlier. In his blog post, Harrison referenced the rising costs of game development as a factor.

Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially, he wrote.
In his Thursday Q&A with staff, he pointed specifically to Microsofts buying spree and planned acquisition of Bethesda Software later this year as one of the factors that had made Google decide to close the book on original game development. Googles parent company, Alphabet, is a nearly trillion-dollar company and roughly on par with Microsoft when it comes to revenue and profit, according to a 2020 survey by Forbes.

I guess it was a wake up call that Google didn't want to invest that kind of cash to compete lol. Microsoft already got what they paid for with this acquisition.

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so then why did they fuck over the terraria developer?

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I was going to say...Google is literally made of cash. Ironically I think they'd be better off starting smaller and building their way up, but the Stadia was always a flawed system with an extremely niche market that never was going to take off.

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monkmith posted...

so then why did they fuck over the terraria developer?

Because they're incompetent and too big for their own good.

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Its still not clear exactly why Google decided to abandon the first-party studios it started building up less than two years earlier.

.... what? Yeah it is. Stadia is a dumpster fire financially, so they decided to stop shoveling money into it.

And what, they didn't know that triple A game development was expensive and getting more expensive? Did they talk to no one in the industry before this month?

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MonkeyBones23 posted...

I was going to say...Google is literally made of cash. Ironically I think they'd be better off starting smaller and building their way up, but the Stadia was always a flawed system with an extremely niche market that never was going to take off.

They (and anyone else trying to break into the game industry like this) are in a tough position really. It takes years to build up a solid development team. Third parties are being bought out or getting timed exclusive deals which would be ridiculously expensive for a niche platform like Stadia to nab. There's not really a solid way for them to compete.

Even Microsoft who is in a significantly better position still has a tough time against Sony and Nintendo.

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That doesn't explain why they give up on everything they start.

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Monolith1676 posted...

That doesn't explain why they give up on everything they start.

Tbh I think they gambled on having a big advantage by being the first major cloud gaming service and Microsoft basically killed off any chance of that mattering. First they released the xCloud beta and it works natively with Xbox versions of games while Stadia required unique ports. Then it was included with Game Pass Ultimate while Stadia required full purchases. Then they announced it'll work on basically any Android device and Samsung TV which is somehow more support than Google Stadia. Then they have a deal with EA. Then they buy Bethesda. Google only managed to get Gylt and Serious Sam 4 as exclusive deals during this entire time.

There really wasn't many ways left to compete without buying Take Two or something lol. Now they're likely hoping they can licence off their tech to a company like Nintendo. They've already lost the opportunity to licence it to Sony thanks to... Microsoft lol.

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Darmik posted...

Tbh I think they gambled on having a big advantage by being the first major cloud gaming service and Microsoft basically killed off any chance of that mattering. First they released the xCloud beta and it works natively with Xbox versions of games while Stadia required unique ports. Then it was included with Game Pass Ultimate while Stadia required full purchases. Then they announced it'll work on basically any Android device and Samsung TV which is somehow more support than Google Stadia.

This is the biggest part here but there's other problems.

1. The YouTube integration they promised never materialized. I don't even know if any work was ever done on it.
2. Stadia versions of cross platform games were not cross platform on Stadia. I.e. Destiny players on Stadia could only play with other Stadia players meaning many multiplayer only games were DOA.
3. Microsoft also offers GameStream which is using your own Xbox as the server to stream from. This resulted for most people far better speeds and response times than googles servers.
4. GeForce Now & PlayStation Now were also already established.

In short Google made a pretty good service that was just way too late to the party to make a difference and other people did it better.

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