What did we learn from the demise of Google Stadia? | Team Talk

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They said it would never happen, it couldn't happen, but after almost three years, Google has called time on its Stadia gaming platform, adding to the ever-mounting list of products the tech giant has killed.

The good news for those who did jump in and buy games on the platform is that there will be refunds, and Ubisoft is even talking about migrating purchases to PC.

We pondered Google's great experiment when it was first announced and so now we're back to pick through the bones and see what we learned.

Were you using Stadia? Chat about your experience in​ our Discord.

​by Team PTC

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​@pass_controller

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A Moment of Vindication | Chris Brand

With all the negativity surrounding every single aspect of our sombre lives, it's nice to get some good news. The good news being: we were right. Not just us here at Pass the Controller, but all of you as well. Anyone who has ever streamed anything could have predicted the fate of Stadia. It's an idea that deserves to be talked about from time to time, and maybe even pursued, but, much like flying cars and spreadable Lurpak, the technology just isn't there yet.

I've had issues whilst streaming video and audio, and I expect I always will, though it's far less disruptive than when streaming a game. My experiences of streaming on Xbox One with Game Pass (and the very limited time I've spent streaming on PlayStation 4) have been mostly positive, yet there's always a minor annoyance or two and it's never good enough that I would consider paying for the service. Video game streaming is still in its infancy. I'm sure that in years (possibly many, many, years) we'll have a service comparable to Nextflix or Spotify.

Google was always looking at a tough fight, going up against the tried and tested PC/console options, and it seems that too few developers were willing to take a chance with exclusives. Not that you can blame them, as big a name as Google might have, they are an unknown quantity in the world of gaming, whereas Sony and Microsoft already have a huge playerbase just waiting for the next fancy toy.

A Silver Lining | Liam Andrews

I never got around to trying Stadia, and though I still don’t feel much desire to, it might have been nice to give it a go, if only for the chance to participate in a (fleeting) bit of gaming history.

However, I’m not entirely sure I would have enjoyed it. My cloud gaming experience extends to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and only then because it came bundled with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. The results were mixed, with passable performance with smaller games and not so great performance with more complex titles. Sometimes games just refused to load at all.

I have to agree with Chris’ Lurpak theory: the tech isn’t ready yet. I have middling internet these days, which is a marked improvement of my rubbish internet I had previously, and while I’m happy with it for online multiplayer, I don’t really want to rely on it for streaming the games unless it works 100%.

I will say it’s pretty decent of Google to refund those who did invest in Stadia, as I expect they could have quite easily walked away without giving anything back.

A Missed Opportunity | James Parry

As a YouTube Premium subscriber, Google decided to try to tempt me into the Stadia ecosystem early by sending me a pro controller box for free, and so, naturally, I gave it a go.

Honestly, it was fine, but the controller lag at the time, and with my internet connection, which was more than quick enough for minimum requirements, was still noticeable. Unfortunately with something like Destiny 2, which I spent the most time with, you need that immediacy and precision.

What was fairly clear as the service continued to mature is that it wasn't aimed at me – since all it offered was the games I already have access to on other platforms, but worse. Increasingly though it became clear that it didn't seem to know what its audience was.

If it was a "pro gamer" type persona, then it would need more exclusives to make it attractive, and if it was a "casual gamer" then the experience of FIFA or Call of Duty would have to be better than dedicated local hardware, and, even with the best connection possible, you can really only get a performance which is "as good as".

In the end, the experience in practice didn't meet the vision and so – it deserved to fail. Hopefully future newcomers into the industry, no matter their size, will learn from this mistake and focus on supporting people who really know what they're talking about.