Hark, be that an angel I hear harping her sweet way to my ear? Nay, tis but the latest official word from the Internet's favourite whipping bo- one of the Internet's favourite whipping boys: Google Stadia. You remember Google Stadia, don't you? The promises, the lies, some foolishness about a future in- wait, have I done that bit before? I've been covering the insanity of Google's 'breathrough' into the gaming market for so long that everything just seems to blur into one. From the getgo I was dubious about the prospect of moving gaming entirely into the cloud, and every lie that Google told to allay my fears served only to make me more suspicious. Seems I wasn't alone in my trepidation because Stadia's eventual launch was modest by every expectation. Just around 550,000 units isn't exactly an abject failure, but it isn't the healthiest launch either. For comparison, the Nintendo Switch (A console which followed the disastrous Wii U) reigned in 1.5 million units in it's launch month. (So Stadia has a little bit of catching up to do.)
But not to worry, our Google overlords say, for the official Stadia website released a 'comforting' blog post to let everyone know that everything is going according to plan and not to worry. (Or something like that, I don't know.) This post starts off by making the excessively bold announcement that "in November, we delivered a great gaming experience for players." Strong words, I guess, but shouldn't those players be the judge of that? Just like any post that is supposed to be telling everyone what they should look forward to in the next year, Stadia's blog then went onto remind everyone about the things that happened in the past 3 months. (Almost as if to say "See! It ain't all bad, you guys got this stuff!") They spoke of all the great titles that were added to the Stadia library, (Which is now up to a whopping 26 games!) their recent acquisition of Typhoon Studios, (A studio who have made one game that is yet to release. Still, a moment of silence please.) the addition of achievements to the Stadia ecosystem (That puts them one up on Nintendo, I guess) and the surprise release of a second 'buddy pass' for Stadia founders. That last one really does make me smile, they're attempting to gather praise for desperately attempting to get more people to play their platform. (Come on, guys, show a little decorum!)
But team Stadia didn't just spend this entire new-years blog patting themselves on the back, (just half of it) the rest was dedicated to a whole list of promises that Stadia assures everyone will arrive at some point within the next 12 months. (So mark your calenders, Stadia owners.) Their first bullet point was a real doozy, "Support for 4k gaming on the web". Yeah, you know that thing that Stadia advertises in all of their adverts? It's not available yet, at least on the browser form of Stadia. (And then there's the fact that Stadia's games don't even run at 4k 60fps on platforms for which 4k is supported, but that's a whole other blog in itself.) Secondly, they want to bring Stadia to other Android phones other than their Pixel products, and they want to release that wireless functionality for their controllers which was promised all the way back at their launch event.
The one bit of news that's really going to win Stadia some fans, however, is the 120 new games that Stadia already have slated to launch in 2020. (I wonder how many of them were even made in the last 2 years?) Best of all? For the first half of the year Stadia are looking at 10 games which will be timed exclusives for Stadia. (Because everyone just loved it when Epic Games started doing that, right?) To be honest, the real victim in all this are the poor studios that Google managed to rope into this deal. I hope that the money they received was worth chucking all their hard work down the drain for a year, I really do. (Knowing google, it probably was.) They ended their post by promising more new games for Stadia Pro come February. But that reminds me of something- February seems like a significant date for some reason...
Ah, that's right. February is the date when folks who bought the founders addition of Stadia, and thus received a complimentary 3 months of Stadia Pro, will be hit with the first $9.99 monthly charge. Seems kinda dirty to think about, doesn't it? Especially when you consider the catalogue of features which Stadia promised to launch with and just plain didn't. This is the truth that is starting to hit the wave of fans who initially supported Stadia like a ice bath full of buyers remorse. Gaming journalist outlets are being even lazier than me, of late, by linking directly to the official Google Stadia Sub-Reddit (The central hub for all Stadia sympathizers) and noting how folk seem disquiet about their potential future with the service.
Now, normally I would link a few juicy threads, but there's honestly too many of them going on right now so I thought I'd just impart the general vibe from over there. Basically, folk are wondering whether or not it makes sense to start dishing out on a subscription for Stadia when the bill hits or to just cut their $120 losses and be done with the whole thing. There's a whole load of overly long threads of folk who feel the need to share their entire families life stories before revealing that they feel betrayed by Google, and one more succinct post of someone rounding up Stadia supporters with Stadia leavers and finding that the latter seems to win out. (For now.) We'll see if that sentiment shifts once Stadia start announcing their coming exclusives. (Which they should really get to long before E3. No one is going to want to hear their crap by then.)
But the evidence of Stadia's impending downfall isn't just anecdotal, I'm afraid, it's statistical too. PocketGamer.biz recently managed to track a decently reliable number of Stadia users despite Google refusing to share that info. (This is due to an Android app that is needed to set-up Stadia and buy games for it. These guys got the figures for how many folk downloaded that app, therefore showcasing roughly how many people had Stadia. I suppose multiple purchases wouldn't count in that.) It's with data that I could relay earlier how Stadia is sitting at around 550,000 units, and how we know that 383,000 of those downloads came in the launch month. Since then the number of downloads has only increased by 43.6% in the space of 2 months, (going on 3) which would usually be a sign of dropping interest.
I may be a curmudgeon, but I don't delight in seeing Stadia fail. (Well, at least not entirely. I don't like being lied to either.) A lot of folk put their heart, and several years of their lives, into bringing this service together, and it must suck for them to create something so ill-conceived. I just fundamentally disagree with Stadia's approach to completely supplant physical gaming as I, and most anyone with half a brain cell, can see what a terrible idea that would be for the future of gaming. That being said, I like the idea, which is why I find myself gradually growing more interested in Microsoft's Project X-Cloud and hope that grows into something decent. Until then, however, the world does not appear to be quite ready for a cloud gaming platform, and already we can start to hear the ringing bell signalling the last hours of sunlight for this doomed venture. Hear it not, Google, for it is a knell. That summons Stadia to heaven or (More likely) to hell!
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