Stadia was amazing. I blame everyone but Google on its demise. You could literally play CP 2077 without a console but people still stuck to PlayStation and Xbox. Google handled the shutdown so well. I played around $500 worth of games got the money back. Kept two controllers and bought a steam deck with that money
You should blame me then. Once I saw that Google wasn’t going to honor steam library on stadia, and then charge full price for games on stadia, I noped out and never signed up.
I say this is a cloud gamer who uses G-Force now, and shadow. I was their target demographic. And they’re pricing model just noped me out of it
Once I saw that Google wasn’t going to honor steam library on stadia
That is such a weird complaint.
Google doesn’t own Steam. Google has nothing to do with Steam. Why would Google give you free games just because you purchased those same games on a competing platform?
Are you also complaining that Sony isn’t honoring your Steam library on the PlayStation? Are you complaining that Microsoft isn’t honoring the Steam library on the XBox?
Heck, are you complaining that Steam isn’t honoring the Nintendo Switch library on the Steam Deck?
I mean: what gives?
That’s a good question. In my view Google was selling remote compute, remote graphics rendering, and charging a subscription fee for that. Just like GeForce now. Remember GeForce now and shadow, we’re both remote game streaming platforms that existed before stadia.
So Google comes along and says hey for a little bit more money than GeForce now, we’re going to let you render and stream games from our data centers. Just like GeForce now just like shadow.
Unlike those other platforms, you can’t bring your own library, you have to also buy the games from us, at full retail price. Even if the game is cheaper on steam.
So it was both a subscription service, and a wall garden with higher than normal prices.
It’s like subscribing to Netflix, and also having to buy the movies to watch. Pick your lane Google
Anyway I understand your position, I’m just trying to articulate as a cloud gamer at the time stadia came out, I was enthusiastic, but disappointed with their pricing model which didn’t seem competitive.
I think their options were to a, charge a monthly subscription, and allow people to bring their own libraries, like the steam library.
Or b. Charge for games, and then stream for free.
Doing both puts them in a significant market disadvantage, and I didn’t want to own games that were tied to a Google platform, because Google has a long storied history of shutting down platforms after a few years. I didn’t want to own games on a platform that would disappear. 100% Google’s reputation prevented me from trying out their platform because I didn’t trust them to be around for more than a few years
I’m just articulating why I, as a cloud gamer at the time they release their product, stayed with different providers. They didn’t exist in the vacuum, GeForce now, and shadow, both existed, allowed you to use a pre-existing libraries, didn’t charge per game.
GeForce now was cheaper, Shadow was more expensive but provided better resolution.
So Google comes into the mix, and their option, while I wanted to try it, wasn’t palatable for me as a cloud gamer at the time.
Scenario 1: buy the game on steam, play it on local hardware, or GeForce now for $5 a month
Scenario 2: buy the game on steam, play it on shadow, or local hardware, for $20 a month
Scenario 3: by the game from Google for more than it costs on steam, only be able to play it on stadia, and pay I think it was $15 a month.
You can see why I chose scenarios 1 and 2 instead.
You know who else doesn’t honor steam library? PlayStation or Xbox. What a weird take
At the time stadia came out as a game streaming platform Geforce now, and Shadow already were established, both of those services charged a subscription but let you bring your own library.
Google’s Offering required you to subscribe AND buy full priced retail games that you couldn’t use elsewhere, so it wasn’t competitive with geforce now and shadow.
It’s not a weird take… because Geforce now and shadow are both still in business now, and stadia is not, they were not able to convince cloud gamers to take their offer.
Cloud gaming is bad for history. If the game was only released for the cloud, and that game is shut down, or the cloud service shuts down, that game is gone forever.
They want to push it, because it gives them control over every aspect of the experience. They know everything you do in the game, you can’t mod it, you can’t pirate, you can’t play offline, you can’t do anything unless they say you can.
