Struggling platform fights on
The past week has seen various whispers and rumors regarding the fate of Google’s cloud gaming service, Stadia. While these stories range from deprioritization to outright abandonment, the internet giant is seemingly not “walking away” from the struggling platform, and is instead leveraging its application to other companies and industries.
Multiple reports online cite that Google is quietly dropping Stadia way down the list of its priorities for the coming years — with a key element being a discontinued interest in chasing major league releases for inclusion on the platform. In a report from Business Insider, however, it is suggested that Google is not so much abandoning the beleaguered project, as much as it is adapting the technology itself into uses outside of video game retail.
Google is believed to be shopping Stadia service as “to hire” technology under the brand “Google Stream” — the company having already had negotiations with publishers such as Capcom, Bungie, and trendy fitness factory Peloton. The concepts range from the possibility of using Stadia to deliver exclusive demos, to utilizing the tech within Peloton’s range of network-connected gym equipment. As an example, AT&T users can already stream Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight directly through their web browsers. While the Google branding is not referenced at all, this feature is powered by Stadia technology.
And thus, it appears that Google still has ideas for the Stadia service, and is still open for business for those who wish to integrate the cloud service in any which way they can think of. Unfortunately, this news will come as little solace to the general Stadia community, who clearly purchased the product… well… to play brand new video games.
Google Stadia is not on its way out… Except, possibly, in the very sector it was designed for…
