In the end, were we not the ones getting played? | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Come January, Google will be shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service. In some ways, the move isnât much of a surprise â as my colleagues have pointed out, thereâs been doubt about whether Google was in it for the long haul with Stadia basically ever since it was announced in March 2019.
If youâve been listening to what the company said about the service, though, youâd be forgiven for being blindsided. Up until the very end, Google insisted thereâs a wonderful future for Stadia, and that players should keep signing up for and using the service, despite rumors that it was about to go bust. Now that Stadiaâs officially being shut down, letâs take a look at the times Google promised us this wouldnât happen.
October 2019 â âIt is a long term view that Google is takingâ
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jade Raymond, who at the time was Googleâs head of Stadia Games & Entertainment, said that the company was taking âa long term viewâ with Stadia, noting that it could take several years to come up with âa huge new IP thatâs going to fully leverage the cloud.â She did, however, promise that âit wonât be four years before gamers get to see the new exclusive, exciting content. There will be some coming out every year, and more and more each year.â
Surely, if the company was willing to admit this, that meant it understood that getting cloud gaming off the ground would be a long-term commitment, right? Spoiler: Raymond would leave Google just over a year later when it shut down Stadia Games & Entertainment
Other studios working with Google seemed to believe the company was in it for the long haul. Gwen Frey, the developer of Google Stadia launch title Kine, told GamesIndustry.biz in November: âI donât even think they want to have a super-strong launch. I get the sense that they want to scale slowly and see where this goes.â
Frey did, however, talk about how others in the industry were worried about Stadia going away. âThe biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear is Google is just going to cancel it,â she said. She didnât really seem to share that concern, though; âworking in tech, you have to be willing to make bold moves and try things that could fail,â she said. âItâs not like Google cancels every fucking thing they make.â
November 2020 â Aiming its sights at 2023
In an interview with MobileSyrup, Stadiaâs former director of games Jack Buser (you might sense a pattern here) said that Google had a âroadmap of about 400 games in development right now from 200 developers.â When talking about how the company was planning its release schedule, he said: âweâre thinking about 2022 right now â thatâs our focus. 2023 is really kind of where weâre aiming our sights.â
He then continued to say that Google was âunequivocallyâ in it for the long haul, and that it was looking âmany years out into the future.â Honestly, I recommend taking a few minutes to just go read the entire interview. Itâs interesting but a little sad in retrospect.
February 2021 â âthis is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable businessâ
Things were looking pretty grim for Stadia as a cloud gaming service in early 2021; Google had just shut down its in-house game studios, and its announcement really made it seem like Google was going to focus on Stadia as a white-label service for companies, rather than trying to make it better for gamers.
Despite that, the company insisted that it would âremain committed to Stadia as a platform.â Writing about the shutdown, Stadia general manager Phil Harrison said: âwe believe this is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry.â
July 2021 â âA limited time incentive programâ
In a bid to attract developers, Google adjusted the cut it took from sales on games launched on Stadia through the end of 2023. Now, there almost certainly wonât be a single game launching on the service in 2023.
September 2021 â âgaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google.â
After Stadia lost games industry veteran Jade Raymond with the shuttering of Stadia Games and Entertainment, another experienced executive was seemingly moved off the project. Jack Buser, Stadiaâs Director for Games, moved to become Google Cloudâs head of Gaming Solutions.
The companyâs statement treated this as a good thing for Stadia: âJackâs new role will allow us to better bring customers the best of Google across our Cloud services, Stadia, YouTube, and more,â it said, not forgetting to mention that âgaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google.â
November 2021 â âa bright future for cloud gamingâ
As Stadia turned two, Google made it even less expensive to join the service. The company seemingly wanted to avoid the perception that it was a fire sale, though, so although it didnât have a roadmap for Stadiaâs future, it did say that it was âeager to continue working on bringing the best games and new features to our community of players so that we can help build a bright future for cloud gaming.â It also promised to continue adding experimental features, and to expand the types of games that were on the service.
February 2022 â seven months before the shutdown announcement
After a Business Insider report that Stadia had been demoted inside Google and that most of the work had moved towards white-labeling, Google spokesperson Patrick Seybold told The Verge: âWhile we wonât be commenting on any rumors or speculation regarding other industry partners, we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022. With 200+ titles currently available, we expect to have another 100+ games added to the platform this year, and currently have 50 games available to claim in Stadia Pro.â
The Stadia Twitter account also said that âthe Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gamingâ and promised, âmore feature goodness coming to Stadia too – stuff we canât talk about just yet.â
The proof is in the playing (which you wonât be able to do after January 18th).
March 2022 – â2022 and beyondâ
At its Google for Games Developer Summit, the company announced several new features for Stadia and thanked partners and players for their âongoing support.â One of the features was âclick-to-play trials,â which were basically instant demos. The company said it was coming to all Stadia titles in â2022 and beyond.â
To be fair, January 2023 is technically beyond 2022.
July 2022 â two months before the announcement
After the popular (and now suspended) KilledByGoogle account tweeted that Google was âbeginning their exit planâ for Stadia and planning on shutting it down âby the end of summer,â Google spokesperson Justin Rende told The Verge that âThis rumor is false.â (Emphasis his.) We were also told to âexpect more news from Stadia in the coming weeks and months.â
KilledByGoogleâs tweet cited someone who claimed their info came from someone working at Google. Seems like it mightâve been legit.
The Stadia Twitter account also posted a tweet making fun of the KilledByGoogle one and told concerned fans that âStadia is not shutting down.â
September 26th, 2022 â three days before the announcement
Stadia tweeted about a new game âcoming soon to Stadia.â I doubt that.