Was listening to Brad and Paul on the Thurrott live stream and they said that Cortana has more users in Europe (where it has incomplete features) than Stadia. So I decide to Google for it.
The problem with a new console is you need a lot of hype to build an enthusiastic player base to get the console numbers off the ground to get developers interested. I really have to wonder why Google didn’t realize they needed to do something drastic to build the numbers quickly… because reporting like the above is going to totally damage their reputation. No one is going to invest in something that everyone is panning because no one is playing.
Traditional gaming consoles are sold at a loss (or very nearly so) because they make the manufacturer money on the publishing rights for the games. Google… if you’re listening… If you’re going to continue to pursue the virtual console model… you need to drastically lower the price… like all the way down to free until the numbers break a quarter of a million or more.
This is what I don’t get either. The kids are bored at grandmas and they want to play a video game, but grandma has no console. She does have a TV… so Stadia could work there… but if you were gonna lug your controller and Chromecast you probably would have a Switch instead. And the game selection is not very kid friendly. So it’s clearly targeted at gaming “geeks” and they already own something better to play on. It seems like this thing is targeted solely at nerdy Google employees who dreamt up their ultimate project.
The whole Stadia thing seems ill conceived and poorly delivered! I heard on AAA last night that they aren’t even delivering some major games in the promised 4K - Red Dead Redemption was one…
I wonder why everyone is surprised? Stadia is run by “Industry Veterans” like Phil Harrison.
You do remember the PS3’s disaster of a launch, right? Yes, that was on his watch. Remember the debacle of the Xbox One launch and the stuff leading up to it? Yes, that was on his watch too.
oh man… that was stuff like “historically accurate giant enemy crabs…” and “if you happen to have three consoles you can easily plug them into each other…” and “Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge RACERRRRR” right?
I also don’t understand who the target audience is. People who don’t PC game, don’t own a console, but casually play? The people I know who casually play games don’t even know that Google makes phones (ie they say I have a “Samsung” instead of saying “Android”). How are they going to find their way to Stadia?
Also, paying a monthly fee + game cost makes no sense to me. Especially when Google inevitably folds this up you won’t own your games anymore. Which is again, a point that casual gamers won’t even really understand. Do you think the majority of people that casually game also understand the nuance of Google’s history regarding folding up their ideas and initiatives?
I guess my point is even the conversations surrounding Stadia, like the revenue model, Google’s history, necessary network requirements are most certainly not on the mind of its target audience…how could the product be as well?
The only way I saw this being successful is if they rolled out Stadia like an Android app. Pushed it hard to people’s phones during the Christmas rush, sold it as a Apple Arcade service ($5 a month, a ton of small titles at launch) and maybe rolled out the big AAA games for a REDUCED price after building user base. It’s like they designed the experience to cater to nerds that have high speed internet and understand what they’re getting themselves into but need an entirely different user base.
As the service is now, it’s a non-starter. Especially when you’ve got games like Darksiders Genesis launching on Stadia for $10 more than it costs on other platforms. The free tier is going to be the key. They could also push it through YouTube where they can have a game trailer and then a “Play Now On Stadia” button. That could work, but only if they offer free trials of games.
I agree. And they seem to be falling into the same stupid pattern they did with g+. A “slow” rollout is a terrible idea especially when you’re talking about gamers and especially when you are targeting an audience Google needs to SHOUT for them to hear.
They needed to make a big splash with this. They needed hype and ads to reach the audience they need to make it successful and cannonball that shit into competition with PlayStation and XBox. Not trickle in like a running toilet.
That and put a “Beta” tag on it. A lot of what is going wrong with Stadia could be looked past if they would have just labeled it as a beta. Look at Project XCloud. It has it’s faults but it is a beta.
Also, they really should have pushed it back. Delayed it. You released a platform to compete with the big 3 and you launched with the key game being one that relies on player population that you don’t have, most features missing, games not rendering 4K, a very weak launch lineup, lag that they knew was an issue, etc… and not one person in Google said “Wait. We need to get this right. Let’s release it as a beta.” The gaming community is smart and really rely on first impressions and it is going to be very hard for them to bounce back from this. I remember when Phil Spencer told the story about when he was in GameStop years after the Xbox One launched and he took control. I remember him saying that he was in a GameStop and heard someone talking about Xbox One and how it does not play used games. He went on to talk about how people will see or hear a first impression and no matter what comes after that people will only remember that first thing they heard and then move on and not look back. I think Stadia really shot themselves in the foot with hurrying to launch.
I honestly see them in a year being a place to play some games and maybe target people who don’t want to invest in a computer or console but with all the restrictions Stadia has I don’t think an online only platform will rival Sony, Nintendo or Xbox and especially not the PC market.
