Is Stadia already on the ropes?
Google has been maintaining radio silence on their Stadia game streaming platform, which is causing concern among the platform’s fan base.
Over in the official Stadia subreddit, user Gizoogle noted that over 40 days have passed since any new games or features were announced. While Google had claimed that over 120 games were coming to the platform, none of them have been revealed so far. They also point out that there’s still no word on support for non-Pixel smartphones, 4K in browser, family sharing, or the free tier.
Perhaps their single biggest concern though was the complete lack of communication from the company. Google had gone from regular news updates at first to rather sporadic ones, and had up to that point failed to acknowledge the community’s concerns.
A community manager for Stadia did eventually respond to the thread, stating that players’ concerns are valid, and that they understand the frustration, but that they had no updates to share at that time.
So far the thread has managed to accrue 9,100 up votes in a subreddit with only 57,000 subscribers. Which is quite a substantial ratio given that specific community tends to be made up of Stadia’s most passionate fans. However, with the initial three month subscriptions due to expire this month, many are second guessing whether its worth renewing.
Following this post going viral, Google did eventually post an update of sorts. Stadia Pro users will now be able to access Gylt and Metro: Exodus for free in February in addition to five other existing titles. The program is similar to PlayStation Plus and Games With Gold, as in these are older titles that were already available for purchase on the platform. So far, nothing new has been announced or added.
Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz a Google representative later dismissed the complaints in the Reddit thread, claiming that the team has been providing weekly updates.
“We understand the desire to hear more specifics on the games. After all, that is what it is about: the games. Of course, not all 120 titles will be announced by the Stadia team, as we leave it up to the publishers to make the announcement about their IP/games, and which platforms it will appear on—just as we will do with the exclusive content coming to Stadia,”
They went on to say that Google is excited to share news about some of the exclusive games coming to the platform in the near future.
If this all sounds familiar, it’s similar to the stance taken by Sony in regards to the PlayStation Vita. Leaving game development up to the whims of third parties, with very little in terms of concrete support from the platform holder. That doesn’t bode well for the future of Stadia.
It’s also worth noting that 40 days without any new games being announced or released is unusual for the video game industry. Even during the Wii U and PS Vita’s darkest hours, a handful of indie titles were still rolling out every month. Which would seem to indicate that developers and publishers aren’t all that confident in the platform as it stands right now.
There’s no real word on exactly how many active subscribers Stadia has so far. We know it’s at least 19,400, given player statistics for Destiny 2. Their social platforms are pretty active though, so I’d probably peg it as 200,000 on the low end up to 500,000 on the high end. Which isn’t terrible for a service that’s only been out three months. Though with those initial subs expiring soon, it’ll be interesting to see how many stay. Many Tweets being directed to their official channels are asking about the lack of new releases.
It would certainly seem that Stadia is on the ropes right now, unless Google makes some sort of major announcement, and soon.
