What s up guys! It s Jason here and welcome to my YouTube channel, the Rise and Fall of
Google Insight. Google is well on its way to dominating all arenas of our life, but
did you know that they too can misfire?
The tech behemoth already has its claws in almost all facets of your life already. For
example, you are watching this video on Youtube--a free video sharing website with user made
content. Except it's not really free, we are the product. Google is collecting data on
us to create accurate online profiles of every person on Earth.
When you need to look up something, you use Google (or at least 90% of people do). You
all know the type of content that people search using Bing...The point is that Google is creating
a future in which we are catalogued, sorted, and coerced into buying from the cradle to
the grave. The dystopia is real, it's coming, and it will be colored red, blue, and yellow
with a green L.
It s not too hard to imagine a world in which corporations with their outsized influence
will eventually displace governments as the dominant powers. There is historical precedence,
if you don t believe me, look up the etymology of the phrase banana republic. Companies can
and will throw money at a problem until it goes away--often times at gunpoint.
Demolition Man is a 1993 sci-fi masterpiece in which Sylvester Stallone and a blonde Wesley
Snipes duke it out in Los Angeles. Way back in 1996, Simon Phoenix played by Snipes, a
violent crime lord, is caught by John Spartan played by Stallone. Although Spartan caught
Phoenix, there was collateral damage--hostages were killed. Phoenix and Spartan are both
put in a cryogenic suspended animation as punishment.
In 2032, Phoenix is thawed out into a utopian Los Angeles--free from crime and violence.
He predictably causes tons of mayhem. LAPD de-thaws Spartan to capture the violent Phoenix,
a zany and violent action movie plot. During one scene the architect of the new, crime-free
world asks Spartan to sup at Taco Bell. Spartan laughs, but someone explains to him that Taco
Bell is the only restaurant left from the fast-food wars. A literal war with Taco Bell
s army coming out on top results in every restaurant becoming Taco Bell.
It is not that difficult to imagine that Google could pull a Taco Bell, hire a mercenary army
and take over the world. We already have the console wars between XBox and Playstation.
The next logical step is an actual shooting war Google tried to enter the arena with its
Stadia, but their efforts were stymied. How did humanity stave the inevitable domination
by our Google overlords for a little longer?
The ugly truth is that we didn t do anything. Google is the only thing that can stop Google--and
that holds true for the Stadia. The gaming system failed because Google overpromised,
undelivered, and relied on its tentacle-like reach to create a market for its in-house
game development company and next-gen console. Lets go over the Rise and Fall of Google Stadia.
But first If you wouldn t mind just tapping that LIKE button for the YouTube algorithm,
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new videos each week. Thanks for doing that and now let us continue on with the rise and
fall of Google Stadia.
The overpromise
Google Stadia launched November 19, 2019, to much fanfare. The behemoth multinational
technology company planned to have an initial offering of twenty-two games and promised
to dominate the world of console gaming. This cloud-based system promised users gameplay
on Chrome web browsers and smartphones alike. The ancillary story called Stadia Games and
Entertainment was supposed to compete with Xbox Live, PlayStation Store, Steam, and Epic
Game Store.
Billed as the future of gaming, the big launch shook up gaming for a short while with its
$130 installation kit and $10 subscription service. Games would be available for purchase
in the Stadia stores. The big shiny new thing was Stadia's ability to share game progression
between the Xbox, PC, and the Stadia. Google hired hundreds of developers and new employees
to start pumping out AAA titles from its tw studios in LA and Canada.
No longer would people have to split time between mobile gaming, console gaming, and
PC. Stadia was supposed to provide an all-in-one gaming ecosystem for all gamers. The excitement
was tangible. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate III were slated to be released
on the platform. But behind the flourish and excitement, there were some real issues.
The under-delivery
After a year, the Stadia still slumped. From 2019 to 2020, the system added a sparse six
games bringing its total offering up to 28. By comparison, the Xbox Series X has 202 games,
and the PS5 has 275. To drive this point home even further, Xbox One has 2704 games available,
and PS4 has 3172 games. The lack of games was one nail in Stadia's coffin.
About the launch, when Google sent Stadia out into the gaming zeitgeist, it was slim.
At the time, people thought it was sleek and efficient, but problems bubbled to the surface.
People didn't want to port their games to Stadia because Google was a dumpster fire
for them. First of all, Stadia didn't have a following or fan base.
The platform didn't resonate with console games because there just weren't enough games.
It didn't capture the imagination of PC gamers because a PC does everything a Stadia does,
but better. Moreover, if you have ever tried to contact Google's customer service, you
know that it is better to chew on glass. This same lack of client relations makes it challenging
for small gaming studios to trust Google.
Google should have provided massive benefits for software developers to send games to the
Stadia. Instead, Google being Google relied on the reach of their name. They believe that
their tentacles extend and dig into everything. Small gaming companies can take a hard pass
on that and shop their games for better publishing houses. Google being Google just isn't sexy
enough, nor is it a financially sound decision.
Google promises that Stadia continues to grow, and the big games will be on the platform...eventually.
Eventually never really comes; there are only 100 games available on Stadia. That begs the
question, who is the system supposed to attract? Console and PC users have no reason to abandon
the vast catalog available to them.
Google has a history of murdering services. The Google graveyard has more than 20 dead
popular products, including Hangouts, Play Music, Go Links. As a business, Google has
the prerogative to move on from projects or services. Still, the swiftness with which
the executioner's ax descends is head-spinning.
Google will eventually smother Stadia. In 2018, Google removed the clause "Don't be
evil" from its code of conduct. It's kind of hard to trust a company after that. After
all, the implication is now that the company will be evil or tacitly accept evil. Either
way, it does not inspire confidence nor trust.
Google had a chance to smooth over Stadia's issues and build confidence. They took a different
approach. When pressed about the anemic game offerings, Stadia rep Patrick Seybold said,
"The publishers and developers we talked to want Stadia to succeed!" Of course, the publishers
and developers that Seybold talked to want Stadia to succeed because--their success was
tied to Stadia's performance. The tentacles
A share of Google is north of $2,000. The net worth of the company is close to $1.4
trillion. To put that in perspective, if Google was a country, it would be the 17th most wealthy
according to GDP. The company has impressive wealth. The wealth that mere mortals struggle
to even comprehend.
That's why it's so puzzling that the massive tech company has been so miserly with its
incentives for developers. The game plan is to pay the AAA game developers and ignore
the smaller ones. Right now, that plan seems to be shortsighted, and Stadia gamers are
left languishing (as much as one can in the video game space) with a limited library of
games.
Because the baby game library and Google's general wishy-washiness with Stadia make consumers
fear the other shoe's drop. Google could have and should have assuaged its customers' concerns
with a strong statement of support for the Stadie. None have been forthcoming.
Gaming is a cutthroat industry. When Google made a splash in the competitive market, it
did not put its best foot forward. The Stadia was unproven and lacked customer goodwill,
unlike the Playstation and Xbox. The Playstation revolutionized the gaming industry with its
business practices that helped game developers succeed. Xbox shipped with the world's first
ethernet port. Then, Xbox Live rocked the gaming world.
How can Stadia hope to compete with the likes of the Playstation Store or Xbox Live? Even
more, how will they compete with Steam? What about the Epic Game Store? It's a crowded
market, and the Stadia and its game store aren't gathering any ground.
In the movie Serenity, a sublime Chiwetel Ejiofor plays The Operative, a religious zealot
assassin. He asks the mercurial Mal, played by sci-fi favorite Nathan Fillion, "Do you
know what your sin is?" If the Operative were to ask Google, the answer would be pride.
Pride is their biggest sin.
A prideful Google relies on its omnipresence and Black Mirror-Esque reach on the globe's
population to make Stadia a success. Gamers are a famously fickle bunch, though, and that
arrogance might not work.
Companies, especially shady companies like Google, have to build up a customer base.
It's not enough for the tech giant to rely on its Google brand. One of the ways to build
up that customer cache is to treat customers like they matter.
Offer deals or features, give the fans something Google! But they didn't, so the Stadia is
not doing well. The literature concerning Stadia's lackluster launch is extensive. Google
is the world's broker of information. It must know what people have said and say about their
product.
Simply burying their head in the sand seems to be Google's preferred approach. What Google
could have done better is take a more conciliatory approach to the gaming community. A simple
statement that assures gamers and developers that Stadia is part of a long-term plan. This
would do two things: (1) assuage the feeling that Google doesn't care about gaming and
(2) build goodwill with a group of vocal dissidents. When a gamer is mad, they screech loudly into
the void of the internet. The loudest screechers attract the most attention. For proof, check
out any gaming forum or subreddit where you will find constantly evolving and devolving
discourse about any new controversy in gaming.
Google needed to learn from the mistakes of other gaming companies. If you remember, Microsoft's
launch of the Xbox One was putrid. It took the software giant a full quarter to see that
the product was trash and launch a disaster. Once they identified the issue, the company
hustled to fix all the problems, including a total and quick renovation of the system.
Google had the chance and the almost limitless resources to fix it, but they didn't.
The Stadia team didn't do itself any favors in community outreach either. You can file
this under "know your audience." Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director of Stadia Games and Entertainment,
made a significant misstep when talking about game streamers. Hutchinson Tweeted, "The real
truth is the streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they
stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content
they use."
His comments opened up a helpful and constructive dialogue between gamers and the company. And
if you believe that, I have some beachfront property in Colorado to sell you. The dialogue
was neither helpful nor constructive--gamers and streamers united and lambasted Hutchison
for his comments. Even though he made the comments from his personal Twitter, he still
carries the backing of Google. For most people, what Hutchinson said is Google's policy. It
seemed like one of the world's most profitable companies in the history of humanity wanted
to charge streamers, and that didn't sit well with people.
Then there was the Terraria kerfuffle. The indie game is trendy and has impressive staying
power. It has been around for about a decade and is regularly among the top played games
on Steam, and is available on every platform. Seems like a slam dunk addition to Stadia's
small stable of games.
Except Google took the path of most resistance in getting Terraria onto Stadia. In February
of 2021, Andrew Spinks, the game's developer, was locked out of his Google accounts. After
a public spat about customer service and his inability to get the accounts restored, the
indie developer ripped his game from Google. After a ton of backlash, Google finally relented,
and the game is slated to be released later this year. The damage was done, though.
It's hard not to connect the Terraria debacle with Google's decision to shutter their in-house
Stadia game studio. On February 1, Google ditched its developers to the surprise of
everyone--especially its developers. Stadia Games and Entertainment (SGE) VP Phil Harrison
had spoken of the company's progress in a January 27th interview with Kotaku and teased
a new strategy going forward. That strategy was the complete shutdown of the gaming arm
with no major games shipped. This screams that Google just doesn't care about the gaming
marketplace.
To punctuate the point about Google's disinterest in gaming, look no further than the ouster
of Jade Raymond from the Stadia team. In 2019, Raymond, who cut her teeth at EA and Ubisoft,
joined the Google team as a vice president in charge of Stadia Games and Entertainment.
Her role was to help SGE to create exclusive content for the device. After a tumultuous
year and the death of SGE, Raymond bolted from the company to form her own game studio.
Raymond's abrupt departure leaves tons of questions swirling. It appears that the games
she worked on will be shelved indefinitely. As previously mentioned, Google does not engender
trust from its users, and this is another salvo in that barrage. A short few weeks after
her departure from Google, Raymond announced via Sony's blog that her new company Haven
was being launched.
Stadia is dying from its wounds. First, it cut off its gaming development limb, SGE.
Then it began to bleed talent with the likes of Spinks and Raymond. Now it's caught in
flux with no apparent natural path forward. As Google progresses forward, they are spending
less money on Stadia. It is beginning to feel like the gaming platform was someone's hair-brained
passion project. While the machine might run some games well some of the time, it is a
far cry from the promised transformative and revolutionary gaming experience consumers
expected.
And that brings us to today. All I can say is thank goodness that Google made a misstep
here. The company already knows everything about us and its AI is top notch--it s comforting
to know that at least they don t dominate in the gaming space...for now. Who knows what
the future might bring--in 2032, we may all be praising Stadia.
Just like Voldemort who doesn t die unless you destroy his horcruxes. Google doesn t
ever really die, it just bides it time and will take over the world when we least expect
it.
After all, Google is always watching.
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video. There was a significant amount of
research and production that went into making this video possible. As this is a brand-new
YouTube channel I just started this year - if you enjoy videos like this, please click the
subscribe button and hit that notification bell! If you haven t seen already, check out
my video on the Rise and Fall of New York or the Rise and Fall of Discovery Zone. As
always, stay happy and healthy and stay tuned for another episode of Company Insight next
week.